


Tumbled FF7

by FFlove190



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: Angst, Bondage, College AU, Crack, DBH AU, Death m, F/F, F/M, Fix-it fic, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Modern AU, Multi, PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-03-07 14:13:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 32
Words: 28,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13436487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FFlove190/pseuds/FFlove190
Summary: A collection of short standalone ficlets originally posted on tumblr in response to asks. Smushed together here to peruse at your leisure. If you got a hankering for new a ficlet, shoot an askhere.Characters, tags, and warnings will be listed appropriately on each chapter.All possible characters, tags, warnings, and relationships are listed here in case you were looking for something in particular





	1. Zack x Hojo

**Author's Note:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169640872145/hojozack-6#notes): Zack/Hojo + “Is there a reason you’re naked in my bed?”
> 
> Pairing: Zack x Hojo  
> Characters: Zack, Hojo  
> Tags: fluff, nakedness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169640872145/hojozack-6#notes): Zack/Hojo + “Is there a reason you’re naked in my bed?”
> 
> Pairing: Zack x Hojo  
> Characters: Zack, Hojo  
> Tags: fluff, nakedness

Hojo headed Shinra’s Research Division, he wasn’t lacking in ways to draw conclusions from reasonable evidence. But sometimes the conclusion was too illogical to be sound, so he was resigned to investigating. 

 

SOLDIER Zack Fair, as the dog tags read, smiled up at him from the operating table. “I thought you could use the company.” 

 

Hojo had no scheduled operations today, no means to cram an operation into his already busy day, and had no time to deal with an errant SOLDIER with dreams of sleeping his way to the top. “That’s a poor reason.” Hojo turned his back on the SOLDIER to go through his research notes. 

 

Fair made a noise, “Well, maybe I just wanted to see what you would do.” 

 

A bet, then. He still didn’t have time to deal with that. “And now you have. I will think up a suitable punishment for contaminating my workspace at a later date.” 

 

“That’s it?” Fair sounded oddly put out. “I thought... “ 

 

Hojo was curious by nature of being a scientist, and he was always curious what other people thought of him. Oh the horror stories they concocted. So, he turned and assessed Fair. Fair was still sprawled out lewdly on the table, doing his best impression of a kicked puppy in a strip club. “Oh? Thought what?” 

 

Fair gestured at the labs around them. “I dunno. It sounds dumb, but like… tentacles? I guess, wow that sounded dumber than I expected. Uh, permission to leave, sir?” 

 

The SOLDIER must have forgotten that he had already been granted permission to leave. It was a shame for him, because Hojo was far too curious to let him leave now. “Tentacles? I do believe I can arrange that.” 

 

If Hojo wasn’t certain that SOLDIER necks could withstand minor whiplash, he would have cast a cure when Fair’s head practically spun off. “Really?! I mean…. Uh…. aren’t you busy, sir? With, uh, sciencing?” 

 

“SOLDIER Fair,” said man jumped like he hadn’t realized he was wearing dog tags to easily identify him, “I have an experiment I believe you would be the perfect subject for.” 

 

Fair’s smile was slow and broad and eager. 


	2. Zack x Hojo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169646404955/throws-more-things-hojozack-35#notes): Zack x Hojo “You heard me. Take. It. Off.”
> 
> Relationships: Zack x Hojo  
> Characters: Zack, Hojo  
> Tags: bondage, sfw

“You heard me. Take. It. Off.” Hojo punctuated each word with a step closer to Zack. 

 

“Nu-uh.” Zack could go at this all night, he was stubborn like that. Usually Hojo found Zack’s persistence endearing; usually it didn’t directly interfere with his work. Zack was currently pouting down at Hojo from his awkward perch above the fridge. The whole situation was making Hojo reconsider the aesthetics of vaulted ceilings. “It’s mine!” 

 

“For the love of -” Hojo took a steadying breath. Patience, patience was what one needed with Zack. “Get down here and let me take it off.” 

 

“It’s my favorite!” Zack curled possessively; he might actually cry. Part of Hojo desperately needed to acquire photo evidence of this. Ah, yes, PHS had camera now didn’t they. There we go. Teary eyed Zack didn’t even notice the flash. “You can’t take it away.” 

 

“I’m not going to throw it away. It’s damaged and needs to be fixed,” Hojo leaned against the counter and debated taking more pictures. Getting angry at Zack clearly wasn’t solving anything, and logic wasn’t working. What tactics could you even apply to children these days?

 

“No!” 

 

“You’re worse than a child. I don’t even know why I gave that thing to you in the first place.” 

 

Zack’s gasp told Hojo enough. “You don’t mean that? Do you?” Zack’s patented kick puppy look was back, complete with crocodile tears and open mouthed whimpering. Hojo took another picture. “Are you… are you taking pictures of me? Now?” 

 

Hojo shrugged. “You’re overreacting in an illogical way. It’s crucial that I make notes on your behavior so that this won’t happen again.” And acquire photo evidence so he could mercilessly tease Zack later.

 

Zack was doing a grumpy-pout now, like he had eaten one of the lemon sours Hojo kept on the table. That was more like it. 

 

“Are you going to come down now?” 

 

“... are you going to take it away?” Zack’s voice was small. 

 

Hojo sighed. “It will just be for a day. As attractive as it looks on you, I’d rather you not get electrocuted.” 

 

“You fucking liar,” Zack glared over the fridge, putting little fingerprint smudges all over the stainless steel. “You said you were going to replace it. Not fix it!” 

 

“And you promptly stopped listening when I told you I would  _ fix _ it.” Hojo rolled his eyes. “The longer you try and avoid me, the more likely it is I will simply destroy it and get you another one.” 

 

Zack re-arranged himself a bit more, so he popped out over the fridge a bit. “But… why would you replace it. This one is the most important one, it’s…” Zack didn’t know what he wanted to say, it happened often with Zack; he lacked the proper words and ideas to say what he meant. 

 

Hojo finished for him. “Sentimentality is pointless with evolving technology. However, I recognize that you are attached to this one and will do my best effort to repair it to full functionality. In the event that it cannot be repaired, I will make it safe for you to enjoy regardless.” 

 

Zack must have understood that Hojo was telling the truth, because he shimmied off of the fridge and knelt guiltily in front of Hojo. 

 

“You silly brat,” Hojo pet Zack’s cheek, his thumb pressing against Zack’s teary eye for a minute. The fool. 

 

“If I have to take it off, then, at least take it off properly.” Zack huffed. 

 

Zack ascribed so much ceremony to the strangest things in life. Hojo rather liked it, there was no rhyme or reason to it, just a collection of things that had to be done ‘properly.’ Watching movies, reading books, and apparently taking off a collar. 

 

“Why, of course. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Hojo was always happy to oblidge.

 

Hojo’s fingers trailing down until they reached their target. Metal gleamed, a thick band covering Zack’s adam’s apple. Various sensors and trackers were gathering data on Zack’s movement, but the warning light (or the ‘oh shit’ light as Zack would say) was blinking. And considering the data that Hojo had extracted from it earlier, there was a high chance a loose wire would come in contact with Zack’s spinal column shortly. 

 

Zack tilted his head back, eyes closed, waiting patiently. Looking at him, you wouldn’t think that he had just been yelling and screaming on top of the fridge for the past ten minutes. 

 

The click of the buttons releasing, and Hojo pulled the metal away. 

 

Zack flinched. “Ow! What was that for?” 

 

“That,” Hojo looked at the offending wire, “was your executioner.” Hojo set the collar on the counter. 

 

“Oh. My. God. That was the worst pun ever.” Zack started laughing. It had been an emotional day for Zack; Hojo wondered why the collar meant so much to Zack, if their relationship was going deeper and farther than Hojo had ever anticipated. Just an idle theory. 

 

Hojo smiled and tugged on Zack’s hair. “Stop laughing and show me your wound.”

 

“Execute! Like a bolt! Bzzt.” 

 

“I hope you know I didn’t actually make a pun.” Hojo’s hands tilted Zack’s neck, making it arch even as Zack tried to bounce away with laughter. The wound wasn’t terrible, and it would heal shortly. 

 

“Hey, hey,” Zack breathed, tugging on Hojo’s labcoat. “instead of a collar can you just cover me in hickies today?”

 

“That sounds like an awful lot of work when your barely scratched,” It took Hojo too long to respond to that. The idea was terribly tempting. “And what do I get in return?” 

 

And Zack smiled one of those devious smiles. 

 

“Very well,” Hojo adjusted his glasses. “Consider me curious. Let’s begin.” 


	3. Cloud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169686930975/yes-tiny-fic-cloud-no-not-you-not-you#notes): Cloud + "No, not you! Not you!"
> 
> Relationships: N/A  
> Characters: Cloud, Sephiroth, Zack  
> Tags: angst, post!AC or post!DoC

And Sephiroth walked into the room. He looked as impossibly perfect as ever: like the god of death climbed straight from the lifestream and was ready to pin the world on the end of his blade.

 

Cloud leveled his sword, eyes wide with terror. “No. It can’t be.” 

 

“Cloud.” The lilt to his name was the same as ever - like a promise, like a whisper, deep and silky. ‘Come,’ it said, ‘follow me’ it said. 

 

“No, not you!” Cloud swung violently. “Not you! Never you! You’re dead!” 

 

“Cloud!” Tifa’s voice was alarmed from beside him. Was she afraid that this monster was going to control him again? Make him a good little puppet? Cloud didn’t even know if Sephiroth was real. He didn’t care anymore. 

 

“I killed you! And I’ll kill you again!” 

 

Sephiroth hastily jumped back from the swing, but made no move to counter. He just stood there, staring smugly like he always did. Then he was gone. 

 

“I have to kill him,” Cloud was already moving to intervene. 

 

“Cloud,  _ stop _ ,” Tifa latched onto his arm. Her grip was hard, warm, and reassuringly real. “He’s gone. Calm down.” 

 

Cloud eyed the door, but no monsters crawled out from behind it. “Sorry,” Cloud said. “I…” The tip of his blade touched the ground. Cloud felt lost and helpless again, he felt desperate for Tifa to put him back together. 

 

“It happens, I know.” Tfia patted his back and edged him back into the room. “You won’t see him again.” 

 

The reunion was supposed to be a happy one, but it never was. Everyone was expecting that reaction by now. It still hurt to witness. After all, it was easier for them all to keep on pretending Zack Fair was dead. It was easier than watching Cloud lose control like that. It was easier than watching Zack’s looks of betrayal and grief.

 

It was easier for everyone but Zack Fair.  


	4. Genesis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169687368980/can-we-ask-more-than-once-well-you-choose-if-you#notes): genesis + "And for now, existence is enough." 
> 
> Relationships: N/A  
> Characters: Genesis  
> Tags: angst, death m, post!DoC

Genesis was a man of many regrets. The end of the world had come and gone - everyone had regrets now, regrets that they didn’t go here or visit them. Life was full of regrets. 

 

Genesis sat on the dilapidated end of the Sister Ray. His face rested on one knee and his wing blocked the wind. By his side was a bottle of dumbapple cider. 

 

It was strange, thinking about it, how little he wanted to talk to anyone anymore. Before, he had so much to say and so little time to say it. He was always writing, always speaking, always fighting. 

 

He had clearer memories of the fights where Angeal interfered than the way Angeal would laugh; he had clearer memories of Sephiroth’s sword than the way he would eat chocolate when he thought no one was looking. Genesis had been too busy caring about himself to pay attention to the people he cared about.

 

Genesis had been there to leave a mark. He hadn’t known what at the time. But now he was known for two things: betraying Shinra, and driving Sephiroth to madness. It wasn’t the kind of thing he wanted to be known for. Probably like how Sephiroth had never wanted to be known as the Demon of Wutai. It was just how he marked the world: letting it burn, burn, burn. 

 

“Well, old friends.” Genesis uncorked the cider. It was rare now, even with the dumbapple trees flourishing. No one needed it, no one made it. “Here’s to the good you did in the world, before it betrayed you.” Before Genesis had betrayed them. He tilted the bottle: it glugged and emptied into the void, the wind carried it away like flavored rain. “One day I will join you in the earth, guided by Minerva to the lifestream.” Genesis pulled the bottle back and assessed it’s contents. Half empty.  “There is much I want to do to fix what was wrought. But….” 

 

Genesis lifted the bottle and took a swig. It didn’t have alcohol in it, it was just apples and water and bitter memories. Genesis had always loved the flavor of dumb apples; he didn’t like them much anymore. 

 

“And for now,” Genesis smiled into the sunset. “Existence is enough. The continued existence of the world, of it’s people, and of the people who defended it. I will do my best to serve them, so that they may survive. One day, maybe, they’ll thrive again.” 

 

Genesis didn’t say it, but he had the feeling that he wouldn’t be there to see it. Whether he returned to isolation in Banora to live out his days making dumb apple cider no one wanted to drink, or if he met the end of his days before then. He wasn’t sure. But he knew it was true. 

 

“To us. A trio of idiots, a pair who met a terrible end, and a fool who wants to save the rest,” Genesis raised the bottle in salute, and downed it. 

 

Drinking alone was never fun.


	5. Hojo x Scarlet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169707987090/hojoscarlet-if-you-dont-hear-from-me-again#notes): Hojo/Scarlet + “If you don’t hear from me again, it has truly been a pleasure.“
> 
> Relationships: Hojo x Scarlet  
> Characters: Hojo, Scarlet  
> Tags: angst, OG, death m

Hojo was one of the most brilliant minds in Shinra - that was why he headed Shinra’s Research Division after all. Most people assumed he focused on biology. But Scarlet knew better. The professor had a breadth and depth of knowledge that left lesser men speechless. The only place on which they disagreed was his overshadowing obsession with Sephiroth. 

 

Scarlet and Hojo stared up at the sky from the Sister Ray’s hashed together control room in Shinra headquarters. 

 

“So this is the Meteor,” Hojo said. It glowed ominously, the sky red where it touched. It was a second, ever-present moon, thick with blood, permeating even the smog of Midgar. Scarlet should have been afraid - everything she had ever worked for, everything she had ever built was going to end all at once: she would have no legacy, no nothing. Same for Hojo. “Tool of the Ancients to cleanse the planet.” 

 

“Cleanse. You have that right,” Scarlet snorted. “There will be nothing left but a husk of a planet.” 

 

“Ah, my dear, there will be one,” Hojo looked north. Scarlet shuddered - that was where Sephiroth lay. Seeing him in the crystal had been almost a welcome sight, but then that bastard woke up and all hell broke loose. Scarlet would shoot him if she thought it would do more than make her feel better; as it was she couldn’t even  _ get _ to the douche. 

 

Scarlet turned to look at the professor fully. He was a man she didn’t love, but had earned her respect and loyalty: his shrewdness, his intelligence, his willingness to sacrifice everything (even himself) for the cause he believed in. “Hojo, you know we have orders to stop him.” 

 

Hojo laughed. “Nothing can stop him. No, no. I have a plan, my dear.” It had been years since Hojo had looked so alive, so full of emotion and movement. “There’s only one thing to stop me. And you’ll stop it.” 

 

Scarlet knew who Hojo was talking about - the tenacious terrorists: AVALANCHE. It didn’t matter what you did to them - blow them up, crush them under a plate, gas them - they still came back for more. They were one step ahead of Shinra in all things - from the black materia to Sephiroth. It was fucking irritating. Scarlet wanted to shoot them terribly. 

 

Honestly, was the end of the world so terrible an idea? Scarlet was going to die at some point, why not go down the way she wanted to. Crushing her enemies and savoring in victory. That it helped Hojo help Sephiroth… well, that wasn’t necessarily a bad plan. 

 

“Don’t worry,” Scarlet smiled. “I’m working on a new prototype. I’ll pilot it myself.” So she could feel their deaths at her own hands. 

 

Hojo laughed. “So the threat of death hasn’t taken away your spirit, I see.”

 

“Only death will.” 

 

Hojo looked at Scarlet for a moment, truly looked at her. They didn’t have many moments like this, where the thing between them felt real - felt almost like love. Scarlet wanted to savor it. But she knew the moment she lost focus, she would lose everything - Hojo would leave her to fulfill his own death wish, and she would be alone watching the world end.

 

So Scarlet turned on her heel. “Well then, Professor Hojo. If you don’t hear from me again, it truly has been a pleasure.” 

 

Scarlet’s heels clacked against the floor and her blood thrummed with anticipation. She didn’t look back, because she knew Hojo wouldn’t either. Not even a proper goodbye: that was proper for them.


	6. Sephiroth in Nibelheim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169711585375/whistling-innocently-while-trying-to-pick-the#notes): Sephiroth + "You can let go now."
> 
> Relationships: Zack & Sephiroth  
> Characters: Zack, Sephiroth  
> Tags: major character death, angst

Sephiroth stumbled. 

 

Jenova’s head fell out of his hands - it clanged against the walkway and went down, down, down. Sephiroth watched it fall, his hand loose where it had been gripping Mother’s hair and his body oddly numb. Down the head continued to fall until it splashed into the mako below. 

 

A feeling of heavy exhaustion overcame Sephiroth. Suddenly the things he had done mere minutes ago were nonsensical, treasonous and downright idiotic. Who was he? He sounded worse than Genesis turning loyal men into copies! 

 

Sephiroth didn’t know when he slumped forward. It took more effort than he cared to admit to lift his head. Past the fallen body of Specialist Cloud Strife, unmoving and bleeding out, was Zack. The last person left who still gave a damn about Sephiroth. 

 

Zack was panting. Sephiroth remembered their battle, remembered the way he cut Zack down, remembered the way Zack had held back and hesitated. Zack was bleed and he was desperately trying to pull himself to his elbows. Below him, the stairs were growing redder. 

 

What had he done? “Zack?” Sephiroth didn’t recognize his own voice, the noise he made. It sounded like a child in a warzone: desperate and afraid, uncomprehending the bodies of their parents. 

 

Zack’s head shot up and their eyes met. The look Zack gave him wasn’t one of betrayal, wasn’t one that demanded Sephiroth submit to him and make amends. It was pure relief. “Se- Sephiroth. Hey, buddy.” Zack coughed past some blood. Punctured lung, likely a broken rib. 

 

“Zack. I…” Sephiroth wobbled, his body too heavy to stay upright. Balance lost, motor skills non existent, Sephiroth watched the world tilt to the side. Ah, he was falling. Sephiroth willed himself to look down - and below him was the vast and empty space of mako. Ah, he was going to die then. 

 

It was divine retribution, then, for the terrors he had wrought. For tonight, in Nibelheim. For his life, which had been marked by death and destruction. 

 

“No!” Zack’s howl seemed to reverberate in Sephiroth’s very soul. There was the pounding of feet. 

 

Sephiroth was jerked back. Hands were on his arm, warm and familiar - the only thing keeping him from plummeting down and below the reactor. Unlike Zack, Sephiroth didn’t think he would be falling into a flower girl who could make him well. Sephiroth lifted his head to stare at his last friend in this world. 

 

“God - agh - damnit, man! Pull yourself together.” Zack was shaking, every bit of him. Sweat poured off of his face and down his lips - Sephiroth could almost mistake it for tears - making his skin golden and luminescent. The catwalk was dripping red beneath Zack. “Pull - pull yourself up.” 

 

There was no way. The lethargy was too great, too all consuming - it was like the life had been drained from him and left a husk behind. Sephiroth was watching Zack die and he could do no more than watch. “It’s okay, Zack.” Sephiroth felt a lump in his throat. He hadn’t realized he still had so much he wanted to ask Zack, so much he still wanted to know. Sephiroth couldn’t make it back up, he was dead weight now: dead weight that would kill Zack, too.

 

“What - what are you saying? C’mon, man!” Zack’s voice was desperate. “Put you big bad general leathers on and get your head in the game!” Zack’s voice was trembling now, his teeth gritted. “I’m gunna get you out of this!” 

 

For the first time in his life, Sephiroth said, “I’m sorry.” 

 

“Why are you apologizing?!” Zack’s hold was slipping. Some of his blood was dripping down and onto Sephiroth’s face. It was warm, it was life. “God DAMNIT.” Zack’s body slid forward slightly, more blood splattered. Zack was dying. “Get up here, asshole!” 

 

Sephiroth had so much more he wanted to say to Zack, so many emotions he wanted Zack to know he felt: how grateful he was for Zack, how much he regretted sending Zack to handle Angeal, how much he wanted Zack to live on and stay positive. But, all he could say way, “... can’t.” 

 

“Don’t you dare!” Zack made an awful noise - a sob, Sephiroth realized. “I’m not going to lose you, too! You - you just got back!” 

 

Sephiroth wondered if the wetness on his face was Zack’s blood, or his own tears. “Don’t die, Zack.” 

 

“You don’t get to order me around until -” Zack’s gasp was labored, his hands shaking more. Sephiroth kept slipping more and more. “ - until you’re right up here standing over me, okay? Okay?!”

 

Sephiroth closed his eyes. He had been such a fool - a fool to trust blindly in the books he escaped to, a fool to let Genesis manipulate him, a fool to have not placed his trust in Zack. But the past was the past now, and the only future here was Zack’s. If he just let Sephiroth fall, his SOLDIER regeneration would kick in and he should survive until backup arrived. 

 

“Zack,” Sephiroth opened his eyes and looked at his second in command, SOLDIER First Zack Fair. He saw the puppy Angeal had always told stories about, the person who always smiled even when things looked grim, he saw a good man, and he saw no truer a friend. To know that Zack would go on and live his life, to teach the next era of SOLDIER right or wrong, to leave Shinra and save the world… it gave Sephiroth a sort of peace. So he smiled. “You can let go now.” 

 

Zack sniffled. “No! No! You don’t get to… you can’t just.” Zack’s eyes clouded with tears. His grip remained tight, but the blood made Sephiroth slip father and father. Soon it was just their hands. “You’re not allowed! Sephiroth!” 

 

It wouldn’t be a glorious death, it would weigh heavily on Zack. Sephiroth knew this. But even keeping his head up, to keep breathing, was taking all of his energy. He clenched his fingers around Zack’s - it was brief, briefer than Sephiroth had hoped, weaker too. “I’m sorry.” 

 

Zack sobbed. “Fuck. Sephiroth. You - you - your my friend. And I love you. And you can’t just. Your not allowed. You’re Sephiroth!” 

 

Slipping, slipping, swaying under the catwalk. Sephiroth could barely focus on Zack’s face, on his words. 

 

“You are… my friend, too.” Sephiroth said. 

 

Zack lost his grip, the look on his face was terrible. It was a shame that Sephiroth had put it there. So Sephiroth closed his heavy eyes and let gravity take him. 

 

All he could think, as Zack screamed his name and he met the burn of mako, was that Zack Fair had always been his friend.


	7. Sephiroth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169719062605/gently-pushes-potential-for-angst-in-your#notes): Sephiroth + "Am I in Hell?”
> 
> Relationships: Zack & Sephiroth  
> Characters: Zack, Cloud, Sephiroth  
> Tags: major character death, angst

Sephiroth stared out at the world. He wasn’t sure where he was, or why he was simply there and watching. But he was. Everything was a blur of colors and shapes and people - familiar and not. It was hard to focus. 

 

Then one day Sephiroth blinked and everything was clear. He was in the sky, looking down at a battle. The world didn’t blur, didn’t shift from place to place as it always seemed to. It was still - only the people, the dirt, the wind moved. 

 

The longer Sephiroth looked on, the more he recognized of it, the more he remembered. That was Zack Fair, and he was fighting Shinra troops. No, this wasn’t fighting. This was the dance of a caged animal on the brink of death. But why? Why was Zack fighting Shinra - the last Sephiroth remembered was Zack staring down at him, desperate to help and desperate to protect the town. And then…? 

 

Zack went down. 

 

Sephiroth started. A thunderclap echoed somewhere behind him, above him. What? Zack couldn’t… this was ZACK. Of all the people who would take down Zack Fair it wouldn’t be a bunch of nameless worthless army grunts - ! Gunfire. The shots were ruthless, with killing intention, bullets to the chest. 

 

Sephiroth was moving before he realized he could move. He was down on the ground, charging them. 

 

“How dare you!” Sephiroth hissed at them. Zack was  _ his _ SOLDIER, his second in command and his to protect. Sephiroth tried to stop them - tried to pry their guns away - but his hands, his body, passed right through them like it had never been there. 

 

Sephiroth was struck by horror - he didn’t know what was going on, he hadn’t known what was going on for so long that he felt like he had lost his mind. And now he was here, watching one of the last people he cared for be mowed down like a piece of slum trash. 

 

Zack shuddered. 

 

Sephiroth turned, and he could see it all happening. The muzzle was pointed at Zack’s fallen body, Zack was breathing raggedly like it was all he could do, and the trooper pulled the trigger. Sephiroth dove in front of the rifle. This wouldn’t happen. Zack wasn’t going to be killed by something like this!

 

Sephiroth didn’t feel anything though the muzzle went through his chest. The sound of impact and Zack’s agonized gasp sent a chill through Sephiroth. 

 

Sephiroth went to Zack’s side. The light in his eyes was fading, he didn’t even notice Sephiroth. His breathing was labored, blood soaking his uniform and the desert beneath him. 

 

“He ain’t getting up again.” The rifleman said. And then the left, just like that. Didn’t even confirm the kill - it was like a game, or a nightmare. 

 

“Zack.” Sephiroth tried to touch him, to stop the bleeding, but his hands made no contact. “Zack can you hear me? Zack!” Sephiroth was trained to handle crisis situations - he was built to bulldoze the enemy and keep his men alive. But this? “Zack, do you have any items,” Sephiroth tried and failed to grasp anything in Zack’s pockets - his hands just went through, “anything that can help you. Zack. Please.” 

 

No touch. No sound. Nothing he could do. 

 

No! There had to be something he could do. He was Sephiroth! Sephiroth wouldn’t let Zack die. Zack who had supported him even when Sephiroth tried to kill him; Zack who refused to stop believing in people; Zack, who had hopes and dreams and honor. Zack wasn’t going to die here, on a nameless cliff on the outskirts of Midgar.

 

Sephiroth screamed and clawed at Zack’s body. Sephiroth wanted to rip the fatigues off and start using them as makeshift bandages. Sephiroth wanted to use Zack’s materia to heal him. Sephiroth wanted to dig into the bullet holes and pull out the offending bastards.

 

It was fruitless. 

 

Sephiroth didn’t even feel the rain, he just saw it. As he leaned over Zack, the rain dripped down and through him - onto Zack’s face, into Zack’s wounds, mixing with blood. 

 

Movement caught Sephiroth’s attention Someone was crawling towards Zack. 

 

Sephiroth was beside them in an instant. A fallen SOLDIER, someone who was familiar but Sephiroth didn’t recognize. “Hurry! Zack has a pheonix down on him, I know he does. He was trained better than to go on a mission without one! Just… damnit don’t stop!” Sephiroth tried to lift the unknown by their shoulders to no avail. He couldn’t touch this one either. “Keep moving, SOLDIER. Do you hear me?” Sephiroth knew he was shouting, could hear the thunder, but no one seemed to hear him. “I said, do you hear me, SOLDIER?!” 

 

Sephiroth kept shouting encouragement at the unknown, begging him closer to Zack, to save Zack. 

 

“And you, Zack, you’re not allowed to die. This is a direct order.” Rain, sheets of it. 

 

The unknown dragged themselves through the mud, eyes eerily blank, crawling closer and closer. And then they were at Zack. 

 

“Save him!” Sephiroth shouted into the unkown’s ear. “Save. Him. Reach into his pocket, take the pheonix down, apply it. Do it, SOLDIER.” Sephiroth’s throat felt raw. 

 

The unknown didn’t hear him. Zack was whispering up to them, talking about dreams, honor, handing them the sword. 

 

They didn’t hear Sephiroth screaming into the rain, into the unknown’s ear. “What do you mean, ‘thank you I won’t forget,’ BITCH! Put that sword down and save him!! You worthless piece of human scum, save his life!” 

 

Zack was dying. He was dying, never coming back, and this this failure of a SOLDIER was just stumbling away with the Buster Sword! 

 

“No! Stop!” Sephiroth screamed, but the idiot didn’t hear. The wind just howled and the rain beat harder. “Go back! You can save him!”

 

And Zack Fair died. Sephiroth could feel it like a punch in the gut, it brought him to his knees. Zack was gone and Sephiroth could do nothing. 

 

Sephiroth screamed into the heavens. The rocks he tried to throw were unmoved, the stones unbroken, and the mud untouched. His heart was burning, breaking. 

 

“Am I in hell?” Sephiroth asked Zack’s body, ask the last smile. “Am I doomed to see nightmares like this forever? To watch you die? To watch you kill Angeal? To watch myself burn everything to the ground?” 

 

Sephiroth had no more emotions left. 

 

In the distance, he could still see the blonde, unknown SOLDIER making their way towards Midgar. 

 

Scratch that. Sephiroth had one emotion left. And it was anger.


	8. Hojo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169744775765/hojo-when-i-die-i-want-to-have-earned-it#notes): Hojo + "When I die, I want to have earned it."
> 
> Relationships: Hojo & Sephiroth  
> Characters: Hojo, Ghast, Grimoire Valentine  
> Tags: major character death, angst

“When I die, I want to have earned it,” Hojo said it into his whiskey glass. He was thinking about the scientists who weren't ruthless enough, the saps who had to transit research instead of conduct it, and the ones killed by their own creation. No one in research died of old age. 

 

“Don't we all?” Grimoire had laughed and poured another. Hojo sort of hated the guy in the same way he hated Ghast: with a touch of awe and reverence and really only sort of. 

 

“You really shouldn't be drinking that much,” Ghast said as he imbibed his own alcohol. “You know how seasick you get.” 

 

“Yes, yes.” Grimoire downed another shot. “That would be a terrible way to die. Puking my guts out over the side of the boat. No, I'd rather save a fair maiden. That my sacrifice always be on her mind and she continues my research in my name.” 

 

Ghast laughed. “That sounds about right.” it sounded like a terrible thing to do, in Hojo’s opinion. Of all the ways to die. That seemed the cruelest to the one left behind.

 

“What about you Ghast? What will earn your death?”

 

Ghast looked off in the distance, thinking. Death would come to all of them, earlier in this field than most. “Family.” 

 

Ghast was old - his parents had already passed and as far as Hojo knew he had no extended family. Unlike Grimoire and Hojo, Ghast didn't see family as a burden. Old age sentimentality, that's what Hojo thought.

 

Ghast was also a sad drunk and good at killing the mood. Grimoire quickly changed the topic to his materia research. Even drunk and lisping, he was still a genius. 

 

Hojo thought about that conversation a lot. He had thought about it when he heard about Grimoire’s death and again with Valentine and Lucrecia’s affair. He thought about it again when he leveled the gun at Ghast’s heart. He thought about it again as he lay bleeding out on the Shinra Tower, with Meteor shuddering closer and closer to earth. 

 

Hojo hadn't earned his death. He had done terrible awful things and made enemies wherever he went; he let his experiments loose and free; he became his own experiment to face down someone who would put him down. Hojo had become a cartoon villain, that sort of death wasn't earned. 

 

There was only one person he wanted to kill him: Sephiroth. The boy he had raised, the weapon he had shaped - his experiment, his life, his obsession. Sephiroth was made of the blood, sweat, and tears Hojo had looked up to. Those had been the people Hojo wanted to be killed by: he wanted their respect enough to be a threat. 

 

Hojo wheezed, stumbling to the computer terminal in his too human form. His body shouldn’t have been able to handle the transition back, yet here he was. 

 

There wasn’t enough time to charge the Sister Ray - meteor was already interfering with radio signals. There was only one thing Hojo could do. He wasn’t going to die here. Sephiroth would never die, Sephiroth was going to kill him. 

 

The earth shook and dust rose in a haze. The computer blinked: ‘upload complete.’ Dying was strange. But Hojo knew that next time, next time he would earn his death. 


	9. Zack & Cid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169748336870/for-the-ask-meme-time-is-weird-so-is-space-i#notes): zack + “Time is weird; so is space. I hope ours match again someday.”
> 
> Relationships: Zack & Cid  
> Characters: Zack, Cid  
> Tags: friendship

It wasn’t rare to see someone moping out the Shinra Executive cafeteria. Zack was pretty sure that was what it was built for, honestly. The food there wasn’t even that good, it wasn’t even free, and they rationed it! It was terrible. But what was rare was to see someone new moping around here. Usually it was the same old faces, or faces that Kunsel had shown Zack once and told him never to piss off. But this guy - this guy was entirely new. 

 

Zack took his tray and set it down aside from the guy. Flight goggles with a pack of cigarettes stashed in them, stubble like the guy had forgotten to shave for a few days, and bags so big under his eyes Zack could probably stuff a whole sector in them. Reno looked like that too a lot. The guy was probably a pilot then. 

 

“Ah, that’s why you look so glum.” Zack pointed his fork at the stranger’s plate. “You got the stuff they put in ration bars instead of real food.” 

 

The stranger blinked like he had come out of a trance and looked down at his food pile. “No wonder it tasted so nasty then. I thought it was fukkin mashed potatoes.” The guy had an accent Zack couldn’t place, but his voice was gruff with exhaustion. Was it just a thing for pilots not to sleep? Is that why Tseng always crashed whatever Zack was on?

 

“Here, have an almost sausage. It always warms the heart.” Zack had two, he could spare one. Plus this guy definitely needed it more than he did. Zack rolled it onto the plate and it stopped just short of the mash pile. 

 

“Thanks.” The guy stabbed it and stared at it. Zack did that sometimes, got so tired that he just stared at his food and imagined eating it but didn’t actually eat it. “So there’s decent food ‘ere. But no good tea? This is the fukkin metropolise of the world and they don’t have any goddamn good tea.” 

 

Zack shrugged. “Wrong guy to ask. The ladies at the front desk might know, they’re pretty up on the know.” Zack shoved a spoonful of peas in his mouth, enjoying the way they popped. They were blander than usual so Zack tossed some salt on the rest. 

 

The stranger laughed a bit. Sounded like a smoker’s laugh, little raspy and almost like a cough. “I’ll check them out, eh… we were never introduced.” 

 

“Names Zack. Zack Fair. SOLDIER Second.” Zack held out his spoon-free hand. “What’s yours?”

 

The stranger grabbed it and gave a good shake. Handshakes were fun. “Highwind. Cid Highwind.” 

 

The name was familiar. “Huh.” 

 

“What you ‘huh’ing about there?” Cid let go and returned to his lonely sausage and sad plate of ration mash. “Something weird about my name?” 

 

“No, it’s…” Zack tried to remember where he’d heard it. It was in headquarters somewhere, next to a rocket…? Cid looked unimpressed with the silence. “Oh! Your the guy! The space guy!”

 

Cid laughed, it was a good laugh: one of those deep belly laughs that made you laugh along. It even came with a knee slap! “Damn right I am. I’m building a rocket right now. Gotta come in for funding talks with the big shmucks.” That seemed like code for: the people Zack really shouldn’t piss off if he could help it. 

 

“The rocket!” Zack leaned over. “I saw a model of it in the lobby. You’re going to take that to space, right? How will you fit in it?” 

 

Cid, who had taken a bite of his sausage and was letting it hang out of the side of his mouth like a cigarette, smiled. It was the smile of someone who was so passionate about what they did and wanted every excuse to talk about it. He didn’t look like the guy who was falling over into his slop anymore, he looked like a big kid. “The rocket’s half the side of headquarters.” 

 

“No way! That’s so big!” Zack couldn’t even fathom it. Sometimes he forgot how big headquarters was. And trying to imagine half the size of it - just mind blowing. 

 

“There’s only room for a skeleton crew max,” Cid shook his empty fork. “Three people if we can get ‘em all ready for it.” 

 

“Three??” Zack was awed. That the same number of SOLDIER Firsts in the world! How elite was that?! “Wait, but that’s… isn’t the rocket huge?” 

 

Cid leaned forward, his grin manic. “90% of that sucker is rockets. Big ass engines that’ll take us right into the stars.” 

 

“WAAT! That’s so cool! It’s like the Junon canon but to space!” 

 

Cid thought for a moment and then nodded. “That’s a pretty good description of it.” Then Cid was eating his sausage, happy. Well, he made a face at the taste - who didn’t, it looked like sausage so it should taste like sausage right? - but didn’t say anything about it. 

 

“Yanno, I don’t really know a lot about space. It doesn’t really…” Zack waved his hands. 

 

“Apply?” Cid laughed with Zack. “Yeah. Yeah. I can’t see them feeding you info for a place you’ll probably never see. So, what do you wanna know? No, wait, let’s start with the basics...”

 

And then they just talked about space. About how space affects everything on the planet: from the weather to the geography, theories about the universe, the experiments Cid wanted to conduct in space, how they would get the rocket up there and how they would get the crew back down. It was so interesting and so new to Zack and Cid knew so much!

 

Before Zack knew it, his phone was pinging. Time had lost its meaning and he was running late. Again. “Oh shit, it’s already that late? Angeal’s gunna kill me!” 

 

Cid raised a brow. “General Hewley? Doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to kill his own men.” 

 

“Well, I mean, you know what I mean.” Zack was hopping up and taking his tray. He was already a step away from the table when he realized something. “Hey, Cid.” 

 

“Hmm?” Cid was making a face at his tea (refilled and apparently just as bad as the first cup). 

 

“Time is weird; so is space. I hope ours match again someday.” 

 

Cid blinked at him once, and then twice, and then rapidly. “The fuck, that was beautiful. Can’t you just say see you soon like a normal person?” 

 

Zack shrugged and almost tossed his cold food onto a poor secretary. “I gotta up my game when I’m talking to an astrophysicist!”

 

Cid laughed. “Well, Zack, I hope ours match again too. Good luck out there.”

 

“You too! Have fun in space!”

 

They shook hands again. And just like that Cid Highwind was out of Zack’s life, and just a few later Zack had a permanent station in Cid’s


	10. Clack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post: Clack + “No, the house is definitely not haunted, why do you ask?” Relationships: Zack x Cloud Characters: Zack, Cloud, Angeal Tags: modern au, ghosts, crack](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169912755365/no-the-house-is-definitely-not-haunted-why-do#notes)

Cloud was finally going to stay at Zack’s place. It had been taken weeks to set up this date. Zack had been out of town, and then ramping up for a big business meeting, and then he couldn’t be assed to clean so he crashed at Cloud’s place for almost ten days. But Cloud hadn’t even seen his boyfriend’s apartment. Zack had gotten to snoop high and low - to find all of Cloud’s porn stash, flip through his books, find his toys, and fuck around in the kitchen to his heart’s content. And now it was finally Cloud’s turn. 

 

He hadn’t been prepared for any of it. 

 

“Welcome to my humble abode!” Zack said as he opened the door, bouncing on his heels. Cloud was still in a little awe that Zack lived in a fucking row house in San Francisco on a single wage salary. Like, sure he was in tech and all but surely he wasn’t making  _ that _ much bank. Cloud made the mental note to always let Zack pay for shit when he offered from now on.

 

And then Zack was touring the place. 

 

“So, how’d you end up here?” Cloud asked as he snooped in the rooms. Everything was chaotically colored: some rooms almost fit a theme and others were just a mess. Pictures hung on the walls that were old and Cloud couldn’t recognize. It was all very Zack. But the whole place still left Cloud confused. 

 

Zack wasn’t a San Francisco native, it wasn’t like he inherited the house or anything, it wasn’t his childhood home. How the fuck had he gotten it. 

 

“Well, it was super marked down because it’s haunted.” Zack said flippantly. 

 

Cloud snorted, but eyed the pictures with a little distrust. It was an old, creaky house: the perfect kind of house for ghosts. “You expect me to believe that?” 

 

“Uh, no. Actually it was a gift,” Zack turned and pointed up at something on the ceiling. “And there’s the attic. I’ve been thinking about installing some stairs and making it a proper hang out spot. Right now it just has spiders.” 

 

“Wait, wait, what?” Cloud grabbed Zack before he could wander off and babble about something else. He did that sometimes and it was cute most times. Not this time. “This house was a gift?!” 

 

“Yeah. Pretty bizarro right? Like, I didn’t even know the guy who owned it. His name was Angeal Hewley, and he like gave it to me in his will. And believe me I had it verified up the wazoo because no one just gives out houses.” Zack paused. “Well, I mean they did during the recession but not really now.” 

 

This was getting downright creepy. “Wait, some stranger gave you this house??” 

 

“Well, he like he had my picture and my shitty Oakland apartment address in his will. And I have yet to meet a look alike Zack Fair so a whole jury or whatever the fuck that was decided it was me.” 

 

“Scratch that, some stalker gifted you a house??” Even creepier. Why? Was this like a ritual sacrifice thing. “And he’s dead?” 

 

“Oh, yeah, he died in the bedroom. Apparently it was super peaceful.” Zack smiled in the direction of the bedroom - the same room that Zack had pointed at just ten minutes ago and promised he was going to pound Cloud into the mattress that night. “I heard he was a great guy, shame I didn’t get to meet him.” 

 

Cloud realized Zack was a fucking idiot because something was up. “Dude. You can’t stay here. This place is fucking haunted.” 

 

“Pshaw.” Zack laughed, like the very idea was ludicrous. 

 

“It’s haunted with your stalker ghost, Zack.” 

 

“Why does everyone say that?” Zack groaned. “I thought you’d be different Cloudy.” 

 

Cloud wanted to say that ‘of course he was different.’ His fear was more rational: why the fuck did some creepy old fuck give Zack a million dollar house when they’d never even met? Sounded like some shady business. Maybe Zack was lying, but Zack was a horrible liar. 

 

Cloud wanted to point this out, but didn’t get much farther than opening his mouth. 

 

Something was standing behind Zack. It was tall, see-through, and only vaguely human-shaped. It brought an arm to it’s face - Cloud realized it was putting a finger to some ghostly lips. 

 

“Zack. No, Zack, get out. This place is haunted.” Cloud stared into the eyes of the thing - the thing that was petting Zack from beyond the grave.

 

“Wow, you’re white as a sheet. Oh, it must be that chill. Yanno the San Francisco air. I’ll turn on the heat and you’ll feel better. We’ll have some coco, watch a dumb movie, and cuddle on the couch - “

 

The thing lifted a picture on the wall, one with Zack and Cloud on their sixth month anniversary when they went to the acquarium, and turned it around. It smiled. 

 

“ZACK!” Cloud pointed at the picture.

 

Zack turned, but didn’t seem to notice anything. “Hey, you okay, Cloudy?” 

 

“The picture!” 

 

Zack looked again. “Oh, oops, I musta turned it around. I keep forgetting about it. I never used to have this problem but I think it’s something about the walls in this place.” 

 

The spectre walked through a wall and something clattered. Zack didn’t seem bothered by it. 

 

“Zack,” Cloud had Zack’s hands in a death grip. “You house is haunted. Get out.” 

 

“No, the house is definitely not haunted, why do you ask? Well, I mean, I get why you asked. I riled you up with that story and everything. Sorry, Cloud I didn’t realize you got scared that easily.” Zack was rubbing soothing circles up Cloud’s arms. It made Cloud feel a little bit better. 

 

Until he saw books floating from one room to another behind Zack. “Zack!” Cloud pointed. 

 

As Zack turned, all the books clattered to the floor. “Ah, shucks, I must have piled them bad again. I always do that.” 

 

Cloud realized two things in that moment. The first was that Zack Fair, love of his life, kindest person he’d ever met, and most passionate man in the world, was a fucking dumb shit. And the second was, “I can’t stay in this house. I’m going home.” 

 

“What? Cloudy, I... “ Zack looked so upset, and all of his attention was on Cloud again. And the books fucking started again. 

 

“And next time I’m bringing an exorcist.”

 

Cloud grabbed his bag where he had left it by the door, kissed a flabergasted Zack on the cheek and left. As he was walking back to his car, he saw a ghostly shape waving at him from the front window. Cloud decided to stop looking back. 


	11. Kunsel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169913430190/im-trying-very-hard-not-to-see-all-this-as-a#notes): Kunsel + “I’m trying very hard not to see all this as a metaphor for my life.”
> 
> Relationships: Zack & Kunsel  
> Characters: Kunsel, Zack, Angeal, Reno  
> Tags: crack, bathroom shenanigans, farting

“I’m trying very hard not to see this as a metaphor for my life.” Kunsel said it mostly to himself, but also to the universe. Because it was ironic, that’s what it was. 

 

And there was Zack, wincing at him from the floor. One boot was still in the toilet and the auto-flush was enabled, the stalls were collapsed from where Zack had somehow run into them and knocked them over, and he was a mess of wood chips and water. Commander Hewley was at the door, standing (probably) in the same spot where he had called out to Zack from. He was still holding the door open with the bulk of his frame; he was clearly shocked by the whole situation. And in one of the stalls had apparently been one of the Turks, the guy hadn’t even taken off his pants and was staring at all of them with the same sort of shocked wonder that a kid who just got caught with their hand in the cookie jar did. 

 

And then there was Kunsel. Kunsel who had foolishly decided to take residence in the stall next to his friend, in the one place that was sanctuary to all SOLDIER, pants around his ankles and phone in hand. 

 

It was like everything that Kunsel cared about - a juicy story, conspiracy, odd happenstance - and then everything Kunsel didn’t want to experience - Commander Hewley staring at his junk while he farted, a Turk getting perfect blackmail material, and Zack being too much of a klutz to even get mad at. 

 

The commander worked his mouth like it would make words come out of it. 

 

Kunsel stupidly responded to the silence with: “First on deck.” Kunsel did not do well when he was the center of attention; and also he was in the middle of taking a shit, that was prime internet sleuthing time, not prime stare at Kunsel time. He couldn’t handle this. 

 

Commander Hewley nodded very slowly, like he was going to scrub this from his brain as soon as he could. 

 

“Uh,” Zack shot up and the remains of the stalls wobbled. Kunsel kicked a foot out at the bit that really wanted to ram into his junk. Well if the commander hadn’t been getting an eyeful before he sure as fuck was now. He looked sheepishly at the toilet, the thing that was slowly starting to flood, and back to the commander, “Do I need boots for this?”

 

Meanwhile, the Turk was sliding towards the door. He knew better than to take advantage of a shitting SOLDIER - but Kunsel still made sure to remember the guy’s face. Red hair, permanent smirk, and bright tattoos.“‘Scuse me, commander, I got places to be.” 

 

And the look Commander Hewley gave him - like it had been the Turks’ fault. Hell, it probably had been. But maybe it was just the same shitty construction that Shinra was renowned for. Kunsel knew he would be investigating after the fact. Yanno, after he got to wipe his ass without an audience to help him out. 

 

“Reno,” was all the commander said and let the Turk pass. 

 

Zack was making his way over the remains of the stalls, wincing at every crack he made. He stared up apologetically at Commander Hewley, and then at Kunsel, and then back to the commander. Kunsel tried to move his knee when the commander followed Zack’s gaze, but the divider really looked like it wanted to crush his testies and Kunsel wasn’t really willing to tempt fate. 

 

Commander Hewley sighed and shook his head. “C’mon Zack, it’s time to teach you how to fill out an incident report.” 

 

And then the Commander looked back at him. There was something in his gaze that Kunsel did not want to think about until he was alone, preferably somewhere with a lock and no Zack to break down the door. 

 

“Sorry, Kunsel!” Zack said as he squeezed by the commander. “I’ll make it up to you!” And he was off, probably trying to get out of writing the report. 

 

“I’ll see you at 18:00 in my office, SOLDIER.” Commander Hewley said it straight at Kunsel. Was it a threat? Was it an invitation? Was it an order.

 

“Of course, Commander.” Kunsel nodded from his toilet seat, where he farted again. 

 

The commander didn’t say anything else, just offered a raised brow and was gone. The door finally fucking closed. 

 

Kunsel would never be known as the guy who knew everything anymore. He’d always been known as the guy the commander had caught with their pants down. He would be a legend. Sometimes being with Zack was a fucking handful, Kunsel thought as he tried to reach for the toilet paper and wished he was half as flexible as Commander Rhapsodos, but usually it led to good things. Hopefully this did too. 

 

“Fuck me.” And who knows, maybe the commander would. 


	12. Angeal & Sephiroth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169928957685/whats-with-the-pigtails-sephiroth-and#notes): Sephiroth + “What’s with the pigtails?”
> 
> Relationships: Angeal & Sephiroth  
> Characters: Angeal, Sephiroth, Genesis  
> Tags: crack, hair

"What’s with the pigtails?” Sephiroth said it from the doorway, looking like he didn’t want to get any closer. 

 

Angeal was first impressed that Sephiroth even knew the word for such a thing, second wary who had taught him that the word ‘pigtails’ clearly meant dangerous, and third irritated because he had locked the damn door. Sometimes Shinra HQ was worse than Banora when it came to privacy: everyone had an override card, even the janitor. 

 

Angeal was going to explain, but the look on Sephiroth’s face was too much. It would be irresponsible of him not to take advantage of it. So, he patted the couch next to him. 

 

“Sit down and I’ll show you.”

 

Sephiroth eyed him the whole time, eve as he sat down. 

 

“Now turn around, I’m going to do your hair.” 

 

Sephiroth assessed Angeal, but he said nothing. Instead he simply turned and waited. That was a clear a sign of agreement as any from Sephiroth. 

 

Angeal took the brush and started going after Sephiroth’s hair. It was surprisingly soft - Angeal had to admit he’d been looking for any excuse to touch it - and didn’t have nearly as many knots as he was expecting. The brush went through smooth. 

 

Angeal started taking a bundle of hair on Sephiroth’s side, pulling it out of his face and tying it back. And then on the other side. Angeal didn’t keep bigger bands laying around so this would have to do. The rest of Sephiroth’s hair went down his back per usual. 

 

Angeal pulled at Sephiroth’s shoulders to get a better look at the whole package. Sephiroth looked ridiculous in sort of a preteen girl trying out new hairstyles sort of way. It wasn’t messy it just… didn’t fit. But it was something different.

 

“And now your hair is out of your eyes.” Angeal smiled. 

 

Sephiroth blinked, and hesitantly lifted a hand to touch his hair. A look of realization and understanding crossed his face - it was a look of pure childlike joy. Angeal realized he had never seen this expression on Sephiroth. 

 

This had been a much better way to explain it. 

 

“Angeal, I need you to sign this so I can get more materia and -” Genesis stopped two steps in the door. He blinked at the pair of them, Sephiroth who had turned to watch him come in and Angeal behind him. “What’s with the pigtails?” 

 

Sephiroth just patted the seat next to him. 


	13. Zack x Hojo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169934749345/zackhojo-why-is-it-suddenly-purple-for-the-ask#notes): Zack/Hojo+“Why is it suddenly purple?
> 
> Relationships: Zack x Hojo  
> Characters: Zack, Hojo  
> Tags: crack, bonding through experimentation

“Why is it suddenly purple?”

 

Zack didn’t say it with any horror, with any guilt, just pure curiosity. Hojo looked up from the notes he had been taking. Zack was craning his neck to stare at the images on the monitor, uncaring of the awkward position or the instruments around him. It was one of the things Hojo liked most about Zack, his insatiable curiosity that, once ignited, was impossible to smother.

 

“Because your iris is naturally purple.” A fascinating pigment; human eyes weren’t normally that color which led Hojo to believe it was a trick of nature. 

 

Zack frowned and twisted to look at Hojo. Hojo never bothered to restrain him, Zack always agreed to this: non-invasive tests where Hojo would try to collect more data on the strange and wonderful entity that was Zack Fair. Zack’s eyes were discolored from the pigmentation fluid, one still mako blue and the other iridescent purple. 

 

“Uhh…? No it’s not.” 

 

Zack had admitted to Hojo once, that he didn’t start brushing his hair until he got to Midgar where he claimed ‘everyone was so pretty he had to do it!’ So it was reasonable to assume that Zack had no idea what his eyes had looked like before. Even his records, filled out with Zack’s messy scrawl, hadn’t included an eye color until he was SOLDIER. 

 

Hojo simply quirked a brow back at him. “I assure you it is.” Hojo had performed this procedure on several other SOLDIER - many with before and after comparisons to confirm that yes, this was the correct procedure. It was an eye drop primarily invented to help covert operations for SOLDIER, but it’s effect was too temporary to be useful in the field. Hojo still got some uses out of it. 

 

“No, babe, my eyes were green.” 

 

Hojo stared at Zack. “That can’t be right.” 

 

“Not like a bright green, like - gawd, what did Balto say that one time…?” Zack scrunched his face. “Oh! Yeah, like the underside of a leaf at the bottom of the tree. So kinda dark and almost brown. And I think I have a picture somewhere from before I joined SOLDIER…” 

 

Hojo stared down at Zack. The timer on the screen behind him was blinking zero, but Zack’s eyes remained beautifully purple. 

 

“You never fail to exceed my expectations.” Hojo finally said. “This - this was a perfectly boring prototype until you touched it. And now you’re an outlier.” 

 

Zack craned his head back to see what Hojo was looking at, the action exposed his throat. Hojo had never quite gotten aroused in his labs before but Zack Fair was always a bit of abnormality in his carefully concocted plans. 

 

“Sooo…” Zack turned back, blinking up at him with those multi colored eyes. “What does that mean for me?” 

 

“It means you have a purple eye now.” 

 

Zack blinked, frowned, and then pointed a finger at Hojo. “Now all my black eyes will just look like accessories!” 

 

Hojo was startled into laughter. He couldn’t catch his breath long enough to tell Zack that it would be mismatched, that he would heal faster than the purple bruising, and that he had no idea if the new coloration would be a permanent mutation. Zack smiled, too. 

 

“Oh! Can you make my eyes look like the stars? Oh - oh, no wait, like the moon! All like waxing and waning and stuff?” 

 

“That’s not how this works, Zack.” Hojo finally managed. He reached out and took Zack’s gesticulating hand, and Zack’s fingers wrapped around his. “You do still have to get out of the chair in five minutes.” 

 

“Do I get a lap dance?” 

 

Hojo’s hand hovered over the lock down button. 


	14. Zack x Tseng x Aer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169935881100/ask-meme-in-my-defense-i-thought-this-would-go#notes): Zack/Tseng/Aerith + “In my defense, I thought this would go a lot more smoothly.”
> 
> Relationships: Zack/Tseng/Aer  
> Characters: Zack, Tseng, Aer  
> Tags: crack, fluff

“In my defense, I thought this would go a lot more smoothly.” Zack had this uncanny ability to look like a kicked puppy when he had messed up. It made Tseng more likely to forgive him. 

 

“Forget it,” Tseng estimated where the platoons would be spreading out around the sector and calculated the best escape routes. The alarm didn’t bother him as much as Aeris, hands on her hips, glaring at him did. Sometimes Tseng forgot that they Zack and her should never be trusted alone together. 

 

“I will not just forget it!” She huffed. “That was my flower wagon. Midgar full of flowers and pocket full of money. Do you know how long it took me to get Zack to make that?” 

 

Almost a year. Tseng had been watching, had arranged things quietly in the background so he would get the necessary supplies. But he was smart enough to know this was a rhetorical question. So Tseng countered, “You do realize what’s going on here, don’t you?” 

 

“Yes, I do. I asked you to watch my flowers. It got stolen. And Zack tried to get it back.” 

 

She was skipping over a few parts. Like the part where she had antagonized the slum lord and pretended that she had never done such a thing (threatening to crush the balls of Don Corneo? Good God, she was going to be the death of Tseng!). Or the part where Zack had discovered a terrorist plot during the break-in of the manor and accidentally set off a room of explosives that rocked the whole sector. Or the part where she had gleefully smacked down her enemies like she had just been looking for an excuse.

 

Tseng rubbed at his forehead. “I parked your flowers over there. They were still there last I checked.” 

 

“Oh,” Aeris speak for: I already knew that, I had known that all along, but that just didn't’t work well with my plans. She was more than a handful “Lovely.” 

 

“Omigosh, they’re safe! Whew, that’s a relief.” 

 

Tseng and Aeris both broke off eye contact and looked at Zack. Zack, who was sagging into a pile of dirt, covered head to toe in rubble and gun powdered and had managed to lose a good portion of his clothes in the fire. 

 

“Maybe we should continue this talk later.” Aeris said, already kneeling down and running a hand through Zack’s hair. “After our poor puppy’s had a bath.” 

 

Zack pouted up at her. “‘M not a puppy.” 

 

Tseng kneeled down on the other side and ran his hands against Zack’s dirty cheek. “Yes, he’s rather dirty. And I know who let him get that way.” Tseng eyed Aeris.  

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aeris scratched at Zack’s head and he sighed into it, trying to fall into her lap. Aeris was devious and manipulative; it was one of the many reasons Tseng loved her. They were so alike, and then there was Zack, smoothing out the sharp edges between them with warm hugs and cute looks. 

 

“So, flowers good. We good. Can we go home now? I’m hungry.” Zack interrupted Tseng before he could say anything else. 

 

Tseng and Aeris shared a look. “Bath before food.” 

 

“Ugh. Gross.” Then Zack lunged at Tseng and got his grubby hands all over his clean suit. Aer danced away with a laugh. 

 

And so they stumbled out of the shack they had been hiding in, giggling and sharing kisses and hastily shushing each other when patrols went by. Yanno, it was just another one of their usual dates. 


	15. Zack x Sephiroth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169943628435/for-the-ask-meme-can-you-do-i-dont-know-how-you#notes): zackseph + “I don’t know how you get yourself into these situations.” 
> 
> Relationships: Zack x Sephiroth  
> Characters: Zack, Sephiroth  
> Tags: crack, fluff

“I just don’t know how you get yourself into these situations.” 

 

Sephiroth stared at his boyfriend in offense. Zack was shaking his head from a safe distance away. Like he hadn’t been leading Sephiroth into this, like he hadn’t known this would be coming. 

 

“I mean,” Zack continued. “Look at yourself.” Zack pointed like Sephiroth wasn’t aware of the goop dripping off of him, of the sparkles in his hair, of the odor suffocating him. “Like, I mean, I was there but I still just don’t understand how it happened.” 

 

“Zack,” Sephiroth used his commanding voice, the one that made Zack startle to attention even in bed. “Shut up.” 

 

Zack recovered quickly. All he did was harumph and lean towards Sephiroth. “I mean, you should have known to dodge. It’s only a short cut if you don’t get hit with the game show goop stuff, otherwise they’ll notice you. And you’ll leave a trail,” Zack pointed at it, “and they’ll follow you. And it’ll never wash out and -”

 

Sephiroth lunged before Zack could babble anymore. 

 

“Ack! Help! Goop monster!” Zack said it with a hint of a giggle. 

 

Sephiroth was suddenly struck with a thought as he straddled his long time boyfriend. This mysterious game show goop… would it make good lube? Only one way to find out. 


	16. Zack x Hojo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/169943863900/well-thats-the-single-most-impressive-thing-ive#notes): Hojo/Zack + “Well that’s the single most impressive thing I’ve ever seen someone do.”
> 
> Relationships: Hojo x Zack  
> Characters: Hojo, Zack  
> Tags: crack

“Well,” Zack said it with a gasp. “That’s the single most impressive thing I’ve ever seen someone do.” 

 

Hojo blinked at him and then made that face. The really cute one where he didn’t quite know how to process Zack’s words and he was using his massive brain to figure it out. “You are aware that I only made a phone call. Aren’t you?” 

 

A phone call that made Zack hard and panting. “It was the most impressive phone call ever! The way you shouted orders! It was just - !!” 

 

“Hmmm.” Hojo looked at his PHS, blank screen and all, and back to Zack. “Are you going to be like this every time I order pizza?”

 

Zack squirmed. “I dunno, maybe?” 

 

“Heh.” Patented one chortle laugh that meant that Hojo was dying on the inside but didn’t want to explain what he found so funny. “Should I have ordered more, Zack? Maybe I should call back.”

 

Zack fell to his feet in front of his boyfriend. “Omigosh, please get more.” 

 

“I wasn’t aware pizza was a sexual preference,” Hojo smirked as he started hitting buttons on the phone. “We’ll have to experiment tonight.” 

 

Zack wasn’t quite sure what Hojo was getting at but, “Pizza is the best food ever. There should always be more pizza. More pizza please!” 

 

Let’s just say Zack was wholly unprepared for what happened to the pizza. 


	17. Zack x Hojo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/170068049410/zackxhojo-and-waking-up-with-amnesia-pleasee): zackxhojo + waking up with amnesia 
> 
> Relationships: Zack x Hojo  
> Characters: Zack, Hojo  
> Tags: lab accidents, concussions/head trauma

Hojo woke up slowly. The world was out of focus and his body felt too heavy like it was with an ache. Sickness was Hojo’s immediate thought. He was familiar with his physiology to recognize the symptoms. But the more Hojo came to, the more he realized that assessment was incorrect. 

 

Cheek on metal grating, the smell of gunpowder in the air, glasses bent but on his face. Hojo blinked and stared up at his lab from the floor. One of the indicator lights was flashing, spilling red across the ceiling tiles. 

 

“Ugh,” someone groaned. Hojo focused on the SOLDIER already pulling themselves up, head in their hands. “What happened?” 

 

That was a good question. It hadn’t been an attack (it was far too quiet for that), nor could it have been an escaped experiment (they were much too alive for that). A failure was the only reasonable conclusion. But a failure in what? An explosion, clearly, but machinery related or chemical related?

 

Maybe a better question might have been what day it was. Hojo had a feeling they were both mildly concussed.

 

The SOLDIER shook their head. “Oww-wah.” Ah, right, that was Zack Fair. Angeal’s student and Hojo’s lover. “Doc, you okay?” 

 

Doc was the affectionate term that Zack liked to use in bed (Hojo had to admit that the Bugs Bunny routine was still worked wonders) and otherwise in private. “I am whole,” Hojo finally admitted. “And breathing.” 

 

“Whew, that’s a relief.” Zack stumbled over. On closer inspection, it looked like some shrapnel had pierced his skin and he had sustained some obvious high impact injuries: bruising, bleeding, hobbling; Zack’s injuries were probably worse than Hojo could see. “Your glasses broke, though.” 

 

Hojo pushed himself into a sitting position. His balance wasn’t extraordinarily off, and there was noticeable pain but nothing life threatening. “I can see that.” 

 

Zack was next to him, and fell to his knees with a grunt. “Heh,” he gasped. “That was a pun.” 

 

Zack was in need of immediate care and for the life of him Hojo couldn’t remember if he was carrying any healing items. Short term memory loss, then. Wonderful. “What do you remember, dear?” Hojo didn’t bother hiding the nickname, hadn’t bothered since he found out how much it bothered his lab techs and pretty much everyone else in Shinra. 

 

“Uhhhh…. Uhhh?” Zack looked around at the lab, down at himself, and then at Hojo. “I must have pushed you out of the way?”

 

Hojo sat up enough so he wasn’t supporting himself on his elbows and instead felt the pull of his weight on his spine - that was particularly painful. Not the best sign, but tolerable. He began the process of checking his pockets. “Are you extrapolating from the given evidence, or do you remember pushing me out of the way?” 

 

That was likely exactly what happened. But it didn’t explain much. Just reinforced Zack’s training and habit of playing hero. 

 

Zack looked around helplessly. “Uh, the first one.” 

 

“Of course.” Hojo found a high potion ins his pocket and shoved it at Zack. “Here, dear, take this.” 

 

Zack stared at it before grabbing it, clearly dazed. He popped off the cap and downed it. Hojo watched him do it, enjoying the way his throat worked. Hojo was just as dazed, then.

 

“That’s better,” Zack rubbed at the blood on his head. “My headaches almost gone now.” 

 

Potions didn’t work that fast, but Hojo would let Zack have the placebo effect. Meanwhile Hojo dug out his phone. It was undamaged - a wonder of modern technology. He started scrolling through the apps until he found his log file. It would probably be off by ten minutes given how often it auto-saved to the server, but it should be enough to get an idea of what had happened. 

 

Hojo blinked. That was not the date he had thought it was. 

 

“Whatchya looking at?” Zack was leaning on him, chin on his shoulder and radiating warmth. It was tempting to lean back and just go to sleep. That was a dangerous and stupid thought. “Science stuff?” 

 

Hojo reviewed his notes, they weren’t telling him much. Zack had a tendency to derail him, but it had been a Zack-based experiment. One Hojo had absolutely no memory of conceiving, but was fascinating nonetheless. And as much as Zack was often a terror in the labs, the virtual unit should not have exploded - at least not to this degree. There weren’t any answers in that log file. 

 

“Attempting to figure out why we exploded, dear.” Hojo patted Zack’s cheek. There was a huff in response. “Don’t fall asleep.” 

 

“M’not sleeping.” Came the sleepy response. 

 

Hojo decided to forgo investigating further and began the process of opening the lab. Blast doors started opening, the alarm was shut off, and Hojo put away his phone. The lab patrols were already rushing in, medical team hot on their heels. Ice materia shot out, crystallizing fires and dripping frozen particles as it went. 

 

“S’pretty. You’re pretty, too.” 

 

“Yes, dear.” Hojo waved over the medics, who eyed their cuddling with distrust. Hojo didn’t even have enough energy to laugh at them. “We’ll make sure to put out fires on our anniversary.” 

 

He would figure out what happened later. After he and Zack would take a nice long bath together later. A day off sounded nice.  


	18. Zack x Hojo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/171514357315/lets-say-hypthetically-of-course-that-i-needed#notes): Zack/Hojo + “Let’s say, hypthetically of course, that I needed help hiding a body-” “Hold up let me get a shovel” 
> 
> Pairing: Zack x Hojo  
> Characters: Zack, Hojo, Yuffie  
> Tags: crack, established relationship

“Hypothetically speaking,” Hojo sipped his virgin drink: fruity and sugary with none of the alcohol to dull his senses. It was an unnecessary habit when he had a poorly trained guard dog at his heels, but Hojo had found that he quite enjoyed being clear-headed enough to handle all of Zack. “There is no life and death, only a constant state of fluctuating existence.”

“Uhh…” Zack didn’t look any less nervous. But he’d been pacing the bar and even the waitress was getting put off by it; no amount of sexy Hojo could bring her closer to refill his drink. “Okay?” 

“This hypothesis states that all life in this planet is part of the life stream. It is where we came from and where we will go. Fascinating idea, isn’t it?” 

Zack appeared to have given up fidgeting and sat next to Hojo at the bar. “Okay, so, hypothetically speaking - one hundred percent not actually real - let’s say I needed help hiding a body.” 

Hojo looked at Zack for a long moment. Zack had a license to kill, all SOLDIER did. Even if Zack had murdered someone (unexpected, but there was a first for everything and Zack needed a true taste of Shinra politics), the most actual push back he would get would be desk duty for a week and a slap on the wrist. But big, bad SOLDIER Fair looked terribly worried. And Hojo was endeared by the last shred of innocence in Zack; the adorable little SOLDIER who didn’t like to kill, who thought he couldn’t get away with a murder. Adorable! 

“Hold on.” Hojo downed the rest of his beverage. “Let me get a shovel.” Kill it just in case it wasn’t dead, bury it if he felt like it. 

Zack was visibly sweating. “We don’t need a shovel!” 

Hojo quirked a brow. “Where’d you leave the body?”

“In the…” Zack glanced to the door behind Hojo. “in the bathroom.”

“Very well.” Hojo turned his chair, hopped off and trotted to the bathroom. Zack was hot on his heels. 

The bathroom was empty but one locked stall. 

“It’s there, I take it?” 

Zack nodded, looking a little pale. 

“Lock the door.” Hojo headed deeper in. He took note of the large windows that could easily fit a body. The cheap metal clinked and Zack was behind Hojo again. 

The door to the bathroom stalled opened with just a shove. 

“Zack…” Hojo was trying to comprehend it. 

“Y-yeah?”

“You didn’t specify it was alive.” Among the things that Zack had failed to specify was the fact that it was a child, a Wutai child, and in fact the Princess of Wutai. Nor had he mentioned the girl would be covered head to toe in paint. 

“Will you help me?” Zack tugged at Hojo’s arm. “You know I can’t take her back to the compound, everyone would notice. You life off campus. C’mon, c’mon!” 

Hojo rubbed at his forehead. It was also endearing how Zack thought Hojo’s apartment wasn’t constantly under Turk surveillance. 

“She just needs a shower and a change of clothes and a place to lay low since she accidentally knocked off this gang’s art project -”

“They shouldn’t have put it in the middle of the road! Don’t they know some people use roofs to travel! Stupid Shinra idiots.” Yuffie harumphed; he clothes crinkled and dried paint flecks flittered to the ground. 

“And they were out for blood. And I mean, I don’t know her very welly but we’ve had a few times and I figure I might as well help her out since she mailed me.”

“Is this why we came to this restaurant?” A place neither of them had ever been to before and Hojo had little desire to come again. 

Zack’s only response was a sheepish smile. 

“Bah.” Zack knew Hojo’s weaknesses so well. “Give the girl your shirt and then go distract the resteraunt while I get her out of here.”

“Omigawd, babe, your the best.” Zack immediately went in for a kiss that Hojo was too slow in dodging. It left his glasses askew. 

“Ewwwwww.” Princess Yuffie recoiled on the toilet seat. “Dog slobber!” 

Hojo adjusted his glasses. “Why do you care? He’s not kissing you.” 

Yuffie rubbed at her cheek, as if imaging it. “Bleh. Cats are better than dogs.” 

Zack’s turtleneck was in Hojo’s hand. “I’ll see you in a bit!” 

Hojo just smiled at the girl: she had potential to be a brilliant leader and savage warrior. “My girl, let me tell you about the best cat of all.” 

Hojo handed her the shirt and carried her out under his coat. 

Unfortunately, Yuffie didn’t think Sephiroth was a good name for a cat.


	19. Zack & Kunsel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/171543884225/zack-and-kunsel-with-11-its-a-good): Zack & Kunsel: It’s a good plan!…..Okay it’s half of an okay plan…..So it’s actually like a hopeful idea”
> 
> Pairing: Zack & Kunsel  
> Characters: Zack, Kunsel  
> Tags: fix-it fic

A lot of people called Kunsel. It was a pretty common thing: getting calls from restricted numbers, from saved contacts, and from people he didn’t recognize. He was two steps away from being the head of the SOLDIER program - two steps because Kunsel didn’t want to be that close to Heidegger if he could help it - so he sent out calls as often as he got them, coordinating bullshit here and there. 

 

The army was moving out. It smelled shifty - like most things the past five years had. Rumors about promotions for capturing escaped experiments, the immediate follow-up rumors that the escaped experiment was Zack Fair… it made Kunsel’s gut churn. 

 

Kunsel was sitting in the office - Lazard office once upon a time, Sephiroth’s office briefly, and now mostly his base camp because no one else liked to play politics - when his phone buzzed. Kunsel glanced at it, wary of another Turk prank phone call, and froze. Caller ID said Zack. 

 

Kunsel picked it up. “Kunsel here.” he said first, afraid that if he said any other introduction someone would overhear, someone would connect the pieces. The Turk had stopped taping Kunsel’s conversations a while ago. 

 

“Kuns!” It was Zack’s voice - strong as ever, vibrant even. Like he hadn’t expected Kunsel to pick up the phone; Kunsel hadn’t expected Zack to ever call. Kunsel found it hard to breath. 

 

“Hey, buddy!” Kunsel flicked some buttons and the lightning dimmed and the door locked. SOLDIER was used to Kunsel bunkering down and doing shady shit in the office so no one would mind. “What’s up!” 

 

“I, uh… I need some help.” 

 

Kunsel could understand why Zack didn’t reach out earlier. Kunsel had always taken a hands off approach to their friendship, let Zack discover things. Kunsel could only do so much to keep SOLDIER from getting in on the fight - him and the rest of the loyals were working on that; Turks had showed up from time to time but had just as much interest in pursuit as they did. But even without SOLDIER (or Turk) interference, Zack still had the entire infantry on his ass along with Scarlet’s latest inventions. 

 

“What do you need first?” Kunsel had a long list calculated already: supplies, medical attention (according to reports Cloud, if that was who it was, had severe mako poisoning), a safe haven? 

 

“Well… Imma need a way into Midgar.” 

 

Kunsel remembered what he had written in his mail (“I'll always be waiting for you to come back.

Just make it back alive, buddy. Promise me.”) but hadn’t expected Zack to consider it seriously. Come back didn’t mean come back to Midgar. It was the best-worst place to be: the densest populated place in the world, but right under Shinra’s nose. And the more Kunsel discovered about the shit Shinra was up to that he hadn’t even imagined, the more he thought it was a terrible idea. 

 

Turks would survive disobeying a direct order. SOLDIER might not either. It was a dangerous game. 

 

Kunsel remembered the reports that had come in earlier. “Please tell me your not in a yellow truck coming from Kalm.” 

 

“Uhhhh.” Kunsel could imagine Zack spazzing out, the way he would look around for an excuse. “Well, I’m not on it anymore.”

 

Kunsel pressed a palm to his eyelids. He pulled up the troop movement chatter. “Okay, Z-” Kunsel bit down on the name. It didn’t matter if the Turks would ignore him, he couldn’t someone get wind of it. “Okay, listen to me, I’m going to need you to go south.” 

 

“... but Midgar is right there. Why would I go south?”

 

Time had not made Zack any wiser; but maybe Zack was too exhausted to think properly. “There’s a troop incoming. If you keep going north you’ll get cornered at the cliffs.”

 

“No problem! I’ll just bust through! I got it!” There was a hint of desperation in Zack’s voice. 

 

Kunsel sighed very loudly. 

 

“What? It’s a good plan!” 

 

Kunsel made a grumbled noise. 

 

“Okay it’s half an okay plan.” 

 

Kunsel was silent. 

 

“So it’s actually just a hopeful idea.” Zack sighed. Kunsel could imagine him slumping. “Okay, what’s your plan, then?” 

 

“There’s a cave system to the south of you. See those craggy rocks? You should be able to lose the infantry in them. Worst case you can barricade yourselves in there until back-up arrives.”

 

“Back-up?” Those puppy dog eyes, confused head-tilting that made Kunsel’s heart warm. “Uh… huh?” 

 

Kunsel grabbed his sword, sending mails to the loyal SOLDIER in his back pocket.  “Don’t worry, we’re on your side.” 

  
Kunsel didn’t let himself think, years later, what might have been if Zack hadn’t reached out to him that day. Kunsel didn’t let himself think what might have happened if things hadn’t worked out  _ just _ so. Instead he listened to Zack’s laugh as he explained why mountains were the best tasting rocks for the third time that day. 


	20. Genesis & Sephiroth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Oiringal Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/171545373360/how-can-you-look-so-attrative-while-crying): Sephiroth + anyone “How can you look so attrative while crying?” 
> 
> Relationships: Sephiroth & Genesis & Angeal  
> Characters: Sephiroth, Genesis, Angeal  
> Tags: fluff, friendship

Angeal had invited them over to watch terrible movies. Terrible because Angeal had terrible taste. Instead of watching the timeless classics, instead he found this shit. 

 

“I hate you, Angeal!” Genesis dabbed at his eyes with his handerkerchief. “Why are you showing us this trash.” 

 

Angeal, apparently immune to trashy romantic melodramas, just quirked a brow at them. “Why don’t I go ahead and get you some tissues.” 

 

Sephiroth was rubbing at his face, looking at the far wall. From this angle, Sephiroth was impeccable silver hair and leather. Per usual. Ugh.

 

Genesis was struck by inspiration: Sephiroth was a weepy mess too! He’d look terrible!

 

Genesis grabbed at Sephiroth’s shoulder and yanked him until they were facing each other. As soon as Genesis got a look at Sephiroth’s face he gasped. 

 

Sephiroth looked like a painting. One of those reniassance oil paintings that was perfectly framed. Sephiroth’s skin was pale without a hint of red blotches. Those cat eyes always glowing, were like liquid gems - they looked otherworldly, like something from a poem. And the wetness from Sephiroth’s tears made tendrils of silver hair stick to his face. Sephiroth looked like a forsaken angel, confused and forlorn. 

 

Genesis’s anger defeated his sadness: “How can you look so attractive while crying? It’s a crime!” Genesis’s face got splotchy and red and he was a true mess. 

 

Sephiroth pouted, deeply. It was a very adorable expression. “M’not crying.” 

 

Angeal put a box of tissues between them on the couch. “I’m glad you guys finally have something in common.” 

 

Sephiroth stole a tissue and turned away to dab at his face. 

 

Genesis huffed and pointed an accusing finger at Angeal. “Show us another one of your trashy faves!” 

 

“What am I, your servant?” Angeal huffed. “Just for that we’re watching a horror movie.” 

 

“No!” Genesis and Sephiroth said it in unison. 

 

Angeal just laughed.


	21. Zack & Yuffie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/171548268745/zack-and-yuffie-and-10-no-one-likes-your): Zack & Yuffie + “No one likes your jokes” “What are you talking about, the old lady at the store said I was funny!” please!!
> 
> Relationships: Zack & Yuffie  
> Characters: Cloud, Zack, Yuffie  
> Tags: fix-it fic

“So? Why did the chocobo cross the road?” Zack nudged the treasure princess, actual princess of Wutai, with his foot. It had been weird when she found him and told him to go to Wutai with her, but it wasn’t like Midgar was really in the cards anymore. Even after all that stuff with Genesis and Aer’s letter.

“I dunno. To get to the other side?” Yuffie was flopped on the floor, staring up at the ceiling boredly.

Her father, actual King (President? Emperor? Priest? Zack wasn’t sure) of Wutai, had demanded that she stay and keep watch over Zack and Cloud. But he’d heard rumors that she was grounded because she’d caused too much trouble with Shinra and Godo didn’t want to keep cleaning up after her anymore.

“Boo! Nope! It was to get gold!” Zack nudged her again. “Get it? Get. Gold? Eh? Eh?”

Yuffie groaned and covered her face with her hands. She was such a dramatic kid, sheesh. “Zack. No one likes your jokes. They’re dumb.”

“What are you talking about? The old lady at the grocery store said I was funny!” Zack was allowed out sometimes, heavily decked out in Wutai gear to avoid Shinra detection. And he always went to the grocery store; it was such a treat to be able to actually buy provisons, and then not have to worry about someone pointing a gun at him or Cloud while he ate.

“She just thinks all foreigners are funny because they’re dumb. Like you.” Yuffie waved her stinky foot at him.

“Well, Cloud thinks they’re funny. Don’t you bud?” Zack patted Cloud’s hand, Cloud lolled his head back and forth (the most responsive he’d been!). “See?”

“He’s just doing that out of spite.” Yuffie hissed. “If you tell him enough bad jokes he’ll wake up just to give you a piece of his mind.”

“Hey, hey, Cloud, what do you call a zolom who likes to sew?”

Cloud lolled his head. Yuffie rolled around on the floor with a groan.

“A zoom loom!”

Yuffie threw something, and it bounced harmlessly off the back of Zack’s head. A bell! “That doesn’t even make sense! Shut up!”

“I got plenty more where that came from.”

Maybe it was just Zack’s imagination, but he thought he saw Cloud smile a little. This was Zack’s world now - getting cloud back on his feet and healthy. He would figure out a way to Aer later. But being a general of the Wutai rebel forces aiming to take down Shinra was a pretty heavy burden. He’d get to Midgar eventually.


	22. Zack x Aer x Tseng

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/171549130865/5-please-tell-me-he-isnt-doing-his-victory): Aer/Tseng/Zack + “Please tell me he isn’t doing his victory dance behind me"
> 
> Relationships: Aer x Tseng x Zack  
> Characters: Aer, Tseng, Zack  
> Tags: established relationship, crack, fluff

Sometimes dating Zack was giving into ridiculous demands against the majority’s better judgment. 

 

“Please tell me he isn’t doing his victory dance behind me.” Aer had no way of knowing that Zack had already bribed Tseng into agreeing with the promise of a hundred kisses and a million snuggles. Tseng was going to hold him to it; he’d already started counting out his haul. 

 

Tseng instead glanced around Aer’s shoulder to where Zack was squatting down and wiggling. 

 

“Very well, I will only tell you that Zack is doing his best impression of a chocobo to date.” If Zack were paying attention he would be offended by the comparison (as usual), but he was long gone in the swell of victory. 

 

“When this all goes wrong, I’m blaming you.” Aer grumbled. “I can’t believe we’re going to rob a candy storehouse.” 

 

“We’re leaving money.” Tseng pointed it out like the morality of it was what bothered her. But he knew better. They were set up to pull off the crime of Midgar history and Zack had demanded a candy warehouse - full of mediocre candy made on the cheap. “Shinra would have bought it for the cafeteria anyway.” 

 

Aer rubbed at her face. “I can’t believe you convinced me to do this.” 

 

Zack draped his arms around her shoulders, a loving hug and nuzzle into her ear. “You love candy necklaces, you can’t say no.” 

 

That and Zack’s face when he encountered candy was particularly adorable. Picture-worthy even. And Aer was very pliable when it came to pictures of her favorite people looking dumb. Tseng knew this.

 

“Harumph.” Aer glared at Tseng, clearly wondering what Tseng was getting out of this. 

 

He was getting everything she was getting, really. Plus the knowledge that he was going to make her pout for at least a week until she could extract some revenge of her own. 

 

Tseng kissed away her pout, and then Zack smushed his face between them to join in. 

 

“Well, we better get my favorites then.” 

 

“Of course.” Tseng just smiled. 

 

Zack whooped. And they set out.

 

They became a local legend: the candy gang. Hitting Shinra warehouses solely for their junk food, leaving no traces besides some candy wrappers. They were notorious in the storage and candy making industry. Eventually they had the audacity to leave candy requests. But was it really that audacious? The warehouses definitely responded appropriately and those requested brands got free advertising. 

 

Really, everyone won. 

 

“I’m eight hundred thousand snuggles short.” Tseng pulled Zack back into bed. “You can’t leave yet.” 

 

“Awww! I gotta go to work!” Zack whined and wiggled, but he didn’t fight back. 

 

“No, I told you we were splitting the bribe.” Aer settled Zack over the both of them. “He’s gone through at least half of them by now.” 

 

“How are you getting more snuggles than me?” Tseng let mock offense steep into his voice. 

 

“It’s because I don’t work nearly as hard as you do.” Aer played with the candy necklace around his neck; it smelled sweet and sour. “So I get to spend more time with our darling puppy.” 

 

“Guys. Stop being cute. I gotta go to work.” 

 

“I think Zack needs to start seriously paying up on his debt.” Tseng huffed. “No more candy jobs until I get those snuggles.” 

 

“I have my actual job to do!” 

 

“I agree. This is much more important than anything else in the world.” Aer looped a leg around Zack’s. 

 

“Ugh! Fine!” Zack whined. “You get to call Sephiroth and tell him why I can’t come in today.” 

 

Tseng just laughed into Zack’s neck. “You act like I didn’t do that while you were sleeping.” 

 

“Tseng your such a kidder,” Aer laughed. 

 

“What? I get a day off!” Zack gasped. “Omigawsh. We can go get more candy!” 

 

Tseng and Aer just traded a look and shrugged. What could they do? They loved their precious idiot far too much. 


	23. Genesis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post:](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/172874356220/well-done-here-come-the-test-results-you-are-a) "Well done. Here come the test results: You are a horrible person. I'm serious, that's what it says: A horrible person. We weren't even testing for that." + Final Fantasy 7
> 
> Characters: Genesis, Hollander, Hojo  
> Relationships: N/A  
> Tags: trolling, human experimentation

Listen, listen. It wasn’t well known outside those close to Genesis that he was a giant fucking nerd. Like Sephiroth had a breadth of knowledge, fascination with the natural world, and was just a curious cat. But Genesis just seemed to know everything of interest before Sephiroth. And pretty much before anyone else. 

 

The only people who ever pushed back were in the Research Department. Genesis wouldn’t have any of that shit. Hollander had no idea when to stop with his crazy bullshittery. 

 

Genesis ripped the file from a passing lab technicians hands. The white coat turned to yell, saw who it was, thought better of it and just kind of hung around waiting to get the file back. 

 

“Give that back! It’s classified!” Hollander yelled. 

 

Evading an overweight scientist was not that difficult. Genesis just climbed up a table and leaned away from Hollander’s grabbing hands. Honestly his fans were more handsy. Besides, the table was a perfect stage for this announcement. 

 

“Well done, Hollander. I’ve just been given the test results. Oh,” Genesis flipped open the file. It was one of Angeal’s- Genesis could recognize that genetic sequence anywhere plus the lab techs always made the weirdest notes about how sweet of a patient he was - looks like he hadn’t mutated or anything in response to a weird ass test so that’s good. Whatever. Genesis mock gasped and  made eye contact with the white coats who had stopped their work to watch. “It says you are a horrible person. I’m serious, that’s what it says. A horrible person. We weren’t even testing for that.” 

 

“Get down here you brat!” Hollander tugged on Genesis’s coat. Genesis just quirked a brow. “That is  _ my _ file and  _ you _ are not allowed to look at it! You have a lower clearance level than a Rank Z scientist!”

 

Across the labs someone barked a laugh - it was a weird almost cackle of a thing. It sounded a lot like Sephiroth. Oh, no, wait, it was Hojo. 

 

Genesis flipped some pages in the file. Oh, well, looks like Angeal had exhibited some mutations on his back while unconscious. Genesis would check on that later. “I know, it’s terrible, professor. This test is 99% effective. It’s proof. You are a horrible person. The worst person in Shinra. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

 

Hojo was like choke dying over there. Some other techs were awkwardly laughing (the ones who worked closely with Hojo), some trying to hide their amusement, and others taking advantage of the distraction to nap while standing up. 

 

Honestly, A shame that Genesis couldn’t get a hold of any of Sephiroth’s files like this. Not anymore. Hojo had caught on to his ruse real quick. At least he could check on the shady shit Hollander was doing to Angeal. Seemed like Hojo wasn’t going to put a stop to it any time soon, not until Hollander caught on at least. 

 

“You can verify it yourself.” Genesis tossed the file over his shoulder and Hollander wheeze ran over to it, muttering curses. 

 

“You intolerable idiot! What if you had damaged this! You don’t even  _ know _ what problems you might have caused me. This is my most valuable experiment and-” 

 

Genesis hopped off the table, leaned over, and flicked his head so that his hair smacked Hollander across the face. “Whining about it won’t change the test results. That’s not how science works.”

 

Hollander glared at him. 

 

Genesis just trotted off. Satisfied that he had ruined at least one person’s day already, he went off to check on Angeal. 

 

The last thing Genesis heard before the lab door swished closed was Hollander yelling, “At least I’m not as terrible as Hojo!” And more of Hojo’s wheezing laughter.


	24. Angeal & Genesis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/173086481750/rhapscdos-banorashipping-week-day-2-apple): Inspired by [rhapscdos](http://rhapscdos.tumblr.com/) adorable picture of Genesis and Angeal modelling with dumbapples

Genesis rounded the dumbapple tree with a gleeful look. “I’m going to put this town on the map!” 

 

Angeal just glanced at his half-filled bucket and then back at Genesis. It was hard to get a proper picking job in Banora - everyone knew about his tendencies to pilfer an apple or ten. And even though he would never steal from the family, the Rhapsodos’s never let him near their orchard. For money, at least. It probably had something to do with Genesis. 

 

“Banora is on the map. We’re west of Mideel. Everyone knows that.” Angeal debating climbing the back up the ladder. There was no way he was going to meet his quota now that Genesis was here. 

 

“On the map  _ properly _ .” Genesis rolled his eyes. “We’ll be as common a name as Midgar. Or, wait for it, Costa del Sol.” Genesis waved his hands to the sky, imagining it. Angeal didn’t understand Genesis’s fascination with making Banora bigger; Banora was fine as it was, Genesis was too big for it. 

 

“Planning on tourism?” 

 

“Like you don’t want someone’s pockets to pick.” Genesis poked him. 

 

“I don’t pick pockets!” The one and only time he had done it had been purely on accident - it just had to be Genesis’s marbles. Which had then spilled all over the road. And then Angeal had tripped over them. And now Genesis would gleefully call him a pickpocket now and forever.

 

“Uh huh.” Genesis draped himself on the ladder and side-eyed him. “Sure you don’t.” 

 

Angeal just sighed. “I thought you were making dumbapple cider to put this town on the map. Shouldn’t you be working on that? Not bothering me while I’m working?” Not that Angeal minded the company, it was just the whole: while I’m working bit that was irritating. Picking apples was his favorite job in town and Genesis always got in the way of that. 

 

“Oh yes.” Genesis waved it away, smug and accomplished. Like always. Genesis’s confidence was magnetic and disasterous but Angeal couldn’t help but follow him into trouble every time. “That’ll be done soon enough. But we need a marketing campaign to really put Banora on the map.” 

 

“Marketing? For cider?” Sounded weird. 

 

“Look, see,” Genesis pulled out another of those folders from his messenger bag; as expected it was full of collages. He had started making them after Angeal finally told him that he was too dumb to follow - so now he carried pictures. It was childish but perfect, like the sum of everything Genesis was. “I’ve been doing market research and most beverages advertise with attractive young models in varying states of making love to their product.” 

 

“I can see that.” The images were borderline obscene - the kind of thing his mother would slap him for bringing into the house but his father would tell him to hide in that loose board in the wall where she couldn’t find it. “And that has to do with…?” 

 

Genesis was all smiles. “You love dumbapples, right? So much that you dream about them at night? In comprimising positions?” Genesis’s brows rose sumptuously with every sentence. 

 

“No- that!” Angeal huffed. “I dream about them because I get hungry! I’m a growing boy! It’s normal!” 

 

“Well,  _ you _ love dumbapples and  _ I _ love dumbapples.” Genesis snapped his folder closed. “So we should be the young hot models with our product and really sell Banora.” 

 

Angeal definitely wasn’t following anymore. “Huh?” 

 

Genesis just laughed. “We’ll be the models, like these magazines. We’ll take pictures and when I finish Banora White our faces will get plastered all over the world.”

 

Angeal wasn’t really in for the whole celebrity thing. It always sounded nice when Genesis said it, but he got enough attention from the town already; he couldn’t imagine the whole world knowing who he was. There was, however, one thing he was interested in. “How much of a cut?” 

 

“Fair share, as always.” Which meant 30% - Genesis always took the bigger cut because he came up with the plans. It had been that way since the Great Chocolate Heist in fourth grade. “And, a down payment.” 

 

“Genesis I don’t want any more of your sketchy unstable batches last time I was sick so much that-” 

 

And then Genesis was holding it out to him. The black square that was bulky and hard to take places, the thing that Angeal always begged Genesis to borrow. The camera Genesis got years ago. 

 

“Your camera…” angeal started reaching toward it. 

 

“Nu-uh.” Genesis pulled it just out of reach. “You only get it if you agree to model with me  _ and _ take the pictures.” 

 

Angeal didn’t think anymore. “Deal.” 

 

And the camera was in his hands. Angeal ran his fingers over the buttons and checked the lens. Angeal loved this camera. And now it was his.

 

Worship complete Angeal looked up saying, “What are we doing-” before he stopped. 

 

Genesis was already stripped naked. “We’re modeling! Quick, empty your bucket I’m getting in it. And you. Naked.” 

 

Angeal watched his afternoon’s work roll down the hill as Genesis overturned the bucket. There was really no arguing with him at this point, and Angeal could just pick them up later. They’d taken plenty of timed shots together before, Angeal could handle that too. Even the nudity - embarassing as it was to watch the photos come out in the dark room. 

 

The only thing he couldn’t abide by was, “You can’t do it  _ there _ .” 

 

“Why not? It’s perfect here. Under the shade of a beautiful tree, with the dappled sun highlighting my beautiful skin and making my freckles look like perfection -” 

 

“The lighting is terrible!” Angeal swung the camera around his neck and started moving around the latter. “No, no… over there.” 

 

“Angeal Hewley! I am not getting muddy! There are bugs in the mud!” 

 

“There are bugs in the bucket with your ass. We’re doing it over there.” 

 

“You’re being an ass.” 

 

“Unlike some people I’m being a perfectionist.” 

 

Genesis scoffed. Then he pulled himself out of the bucket and replaced his boots. “Fine. But I’m not getting my feet dirty.” 

 

Angeal rolled his eyes. They set up properly, Angeal shucking his clothes, setting the timer, and posing. Genesis elbowed him in the face once. And after about thirty minutes they ended up wrestling in the mud anyway. 

 

All of the pictures ended up coming out good. But this was the only one where Angeal and Genesis weren’t bitching at each other. So that’s the one they kept. Genesis put it in his Banora White marketing campaign collage in the back of his chemistry journal. What a nerd. 


	25. Zack x Hojo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/176651550000/steamrolls-into-your-askbox-with-the-only-pairing): Zack x Hojo “Hey, have you seen the..? Oh.”
> 
> Pairings: Zack x Hojo  
> Characters: Zack, Hojo  
> Other Tags: fluff

When Hojo walked into his living quarters he noticed a distinct lack of green. Hojo decorated tastefully, mind you, with the deep rich colors that reminded him of his homeland, books, and a plethora of indoor plants. 

 

The plants were absent. 

 

Hojo was one of those people who lived his life with a certain routine, with everything in its proper place. There was, of course, an element of randomness that came with life: food in the work fridge shifted just a few centimeters, an empty coffee carafe, plates left out. Things that other people did that Hojo couldn’t directly control. 

 

Zack’s boots were left at the door, unzipped and haphazardly tossed. Hojo took a moment to inspect them. Clean, as expected since Zack hadn’t taken any missions today; unexpected that Zack had chosen to visit today. 

 

Given Hojo’s demeanor and, admittedly, cruel humor, it was easy to assume that the chaos of life irritated him. Lab techs would apologize, secretaries would scurries, nurses would cry… all because he pointed out a flaw. 

 

“Zack?” Hojo called. The door to the bedroom was ajar and Hojo made his way over. 

 

Anyone who assumed that Hojo didn’t appreciate the randomness of life didn’t know him at all. Why, he had the biggest mystery sharing his bed with him - how could he scoff at such a thing? 

 

“Have you seen the -” Hojo opened the door and then paused. “Oh. That’s where they went to.” 

 

Zack hastily covered himself. Which was inexplicable because he wasn’t even out of uniform (Zack liked to surprise Hojo with his casual clothes and hated being interupted before he was ready). 

 

“I’m not doing anything!!” Zack promptly ducked behind a fern. The entire bedroom was covered in plants; it was like the forest had seeped into his space. It was a pleasant illusion, Hojo had to admit. 

 

Hojo brushed the leaves aside to look at his boyfriend - emphasis on the boy. Zack looked back up at him guiltily. 

 

“Oh? You’re not? Hmm.” Hojo wondered what exactly Zack had been up to with all of these plants. Trying to spice up the bedroom? A desire to sleep in greenery? “Missing the jungle?” 

 

Zack pouted. “N-no. It’s just…” Zack looked around and waved Hojo closer. Hojo obliged. “The plants in the livign room were jealous that they didn’t get to see us have sex all the time.” 

 

Hojo snorted a laugh. “You intend to give them a free show? All of them?” 

 

Zack looked around the room like a puppy that didn’t want to admit they’d done wrong. “Well… I guess it sort of is a lot of plants, isn’t it?” 

 

Hojo still couldn’t begin to fathom the jumps in processing Zack’s mind made. So many of his decisions were arbitrary to the point of randomness. And hojo didn’t know if he could ever say just how much he appreciated that. 

 

Hojo smiled and pressed a hand against Zack’s cheek. “We better give them a show, shouldn’t we?”

 

Zack popped up and immediately pulled Hojo in for a kiss. It was wet and playful and made Hojo laugh into it. 

 

Hojo had no intention of telling Zack that there was at least one Turks camera in one of these plants. Pity he couldn’t remember which one it was now that they were all on the floor. 


	26. Zack x Sephiroth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/176688993195/yanno-i-saw-this-prompt-and-was-like-yes-i): Zairoth + “Teach me how to play?”
> 
> Pairings: Zack x Sephiroth  
> Characters: Zack, Sephiroth  
> Other Tags: fluff

“Soooo… whatchya doin?” Zack asked Sephiroth as they rumbled along in the jeep. 

 

Zack didn’t really know Sephiroth that well. They’d met a few times at work events or coming in and out of Lazard’s office. But, other than that? Zack never really got a chance to interact with the big guy. 

 

“Keep your eyes on the road, Fair.” 

 

“Okey-dokey. Looking at the road.”

 

All of Zack’s knowledge was basically hearsay through the Silver Elite emails or Kunsel’s gossip or yanno the television. To be honest? It really was an awkward place to be in a relationship - knowing a smattering of random personal details and work accomplishments about someone but actually have only exchanged maybe ten words with him. 

 

But! Today was different! Because today… Zack was on a mission with Sephiroth! 

 

“See, uh, see anything interesting out there?” 

 

“Hn.” 

 

“... well that seems interesting. I can’t believe I missed it. Yanno that cloud over there sort of looks like a frog -”

 

“Focus, Fair.” 

 

“Right. Got it.”  

 

Technically it was actually a candidacy test for First. Zack had one-on-one observed missions with Genesis and Lazard, too (those had been eventful to say the least). Sephiroth had to give his seal of approval and Zack could  _ finally _ make it to First Class. 

 

He needed to be nothing but professional and put together. Once he was First he could get all up in Sephiroth’s face like the weirdo he was; like he had done with Genesis. And since Genesis had already threatened to kick him out of the program, Zack sort of really needed Sephiroth’s thumbs up after this - preferably all thumbs in the up position. 

 

At least, that’s what Zack had told himself a few hours ago. Back when he had thought that getting to the mission site would be a lot more straightforward: helicopter drop and out like usual. 

  
  


“You keeping busy over there?” 

 

Sephiroth flicked his eyes towards Zack and then back out at the landscape. Two SOLDIER, no support, driving along in the middle of nowhere, out towards what Zack had thought was a standard purge mission but maybe he’d read the parameters wrong. At least Zack got to drive.

 

When Sephiroth didn’t respond with another one of those shutdowns, Zack finally sensed an opening. 

 

“Hey, now, look. I know how boring it can get to just sit around and wait to get somewhere. And it’s been like - psh  _ hours _ . There’s no way someone as smart as you has just been staring off into space.” 

 

There was an odd, low rumble. Was it the jeep making mysterious (and worrisome) noises? Was it just Sephiroth burping? Or just something they should be concerned about. 

 

“I’m keeping occupied.” Sephiroth said. “Turn right.” 

 

The landscape didn’t  _ look _ familiar but Zack had the feeling that they were going in circles. There weren’t any jeep tracks he was driving over or anything but the feeling lingered. 

 

“Well… keeping occupied with what?” Zack refocused his brain as he scanned the scenery again. Standard terrain, no stand out landmarks, and minimal monster population. “Like trying to figure out what you want to eat for dinner occupied? Or what sort of report you’re going to write occupied? Or, I dunno, just keeping watch for baddies occupied?” 

 

“For your information,” Sephiroth said slowly. “I’m playing a game.” 

 

Zack was tempted to hit the brakes and full stop just to have a proper conversation with his SO. 

 

“Shut the front door! A game!” Zack tried not to sound as excited as he felt. As much as he loved everything about his job, he was currently bored out of his mind. “What kind of game?” 

 

Zack could see Sephiroth shrug in the corner of his eye. “I have been told that it’s not much of a game. But I find enjoyment out of it.” 

 

Zack came to a fork in the road, so he pulled to a stop and idled the engine. Sephiroth didn’t give him any further directions. Zack let the engine idle and looked at the guy. 

 

“So it’s like a smart person game.” Zack leaned against the steering wheel - he didn’t honk the horn though, lesson learned from when he did that earlier today. 

 

“Not particularly.” Sephiroth said. The silver general was staring out at the road, looking intimidating and glamorous. Both of these things were easy to do: Sephiroth had a naturally severe face (he probably looked adorable when he smiled), and his height and posture made him seem twice as large as he really was (Zack always remembered Angeal as smaller than Sephiroth even when that just wasn’t true at all) and he was just devastatingly beautiful by default. 

 

“Well, then what kind of game is it?” Zack glanced at the landscape. It was calm, not eerily still. No immediate threats were on the horizon at the very least. 

 

Sephiroth just shrugged like he lacked the words to explain it. Which was weird - the guy had once given the most moving speech on television. There was no way he didn’t have a dictionary in the back pocket of his brain. 

 

Zack also noticed that Sephiroth still hadn’t given him any further directions. Zack made what was apparently called an ‘executive decision.’ He conveniently forgot the part where he had done the same with Genesis and it really hadn’t been the smartest move. 

 

“Well. Looks like we aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.” Zack turned off the engine so as not to burn off the mako in the tank. He really didn’t want to walk all the way to a base just cuz they got stuck at a fork in the road. 

 

Sephiroth gave Zack a funny look - one which Zack could only interpret as: of course we’re going somewhere that’s why we’re out on this mission. 

 

But Zack pressed on before Sephiroth could respond: “Teach me how to play?” 

 

“Excuse me?” Sephiroth was completely baffled and it showed. 

 

“The game you play. Teach me how to play it. I’ve been driving for forever I need something to tickle my brain.” 

 

Sephiroth just blinked at him. “We’re in the middle of hostile territory. No brain tickling will be happen.” 

 

“Aww.” Zack pouted and fiddled with the wiper lever. “We’re stuck at a fork in the road with no direction to go. I mean, what harm can it really do?” 

 

Sephiroth just stared at Zack. Zack couldn’t tell if Sephiroth was trying to tell Zack that the answer to that question was obvious, or if he was actually considering it. 

 

Sephiroth cleared his throat. “As I said, it’s not really a game by the usual standards.” If Zack didn’t know better, he would think that Sephiroth was uncomfortable. 

 

“Everybody has their pasttimes. What some people find weird other’s think is normal. Like, yanno, how Angeal thinks it’s weird to check out your own butt.”

 

Sephiroth almost smiled at that. It was even more adorable than Zack had pictured. 

 

“The basic premise is to select an individual. Either someone you are acquainted with or not.” 

 

Zack was following so far so he nodded. Zack wasn’t going to say he picked Sephiroth, but he did pick Sephiroth. 

 

“Then you create a fictitious conversation between yourself and the person of your choice.” Sephiroth shrugged. “Create as many conversations as you’d like.” 

 

“That’s what you’re playing?” Zack tried not to sound too astonished by the news. 

 

“I have been told that it’s much more effective to simply  _ talk  _ to the person.” Sephiroth said it almost a little… defensively? 

 

“Yeah, but how else will you get to practice?” Zack gestured to his own face. “I do that all the time! Well, I mean… I  _ should _ do it more. I eat my shoe a lot, yanno.” 

 

Sephiroth barked a laugh. “I suppose it is different when you lack a filter.” 

 

“... Angeal’s been talking about me hasn’t he?” 

 

Zack couldn’t really pout when Sephiroth laughed again. The laugh was as explosive as his smile: brief and small and something to savor. Zack liked it a lot. 

 

“Well, anyway. What conversations have you been thinking about during the drive? Anything interesting?” 

 

Sephiroth looked at Zack, and then scanned the surrounding area. For a moment he went so still that Zack started scanning the area, too. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary but Sephiroth seemed tense - and if Sephiroth was tense then Zack probably should be too. They  _ were _ still in hostile territory. 

 

“I was wondering what you would say if I asked you on a date.” Sephiroth said very quietly. 

 

“What?” Zack’s head swiveled back to Sephiroth. 

 

“Of course, not during this mission. That could be construed as favoritism and your promotion put in jeopardy.”  

 

Zack was still trying to process what Sephiroth had said, and he opened his mouth before his brain could figure out what he wanted to say. “So what did I say?”

 

“...” Sephiroth looked back at Zack. Up and down and up again. Oddly, the assessing look didn’t feel sexual. “You were… agreeable.” 

 

“Whew. Okay good.” Zack turned on the engine. “I’m glad your pretend-me did exactly what me would do.” 

 

“... pardon?” 

 

Zack didn’t normally get embarrassed when it came to thinks like this. It didn’t matter where he was: a crowded hall, in the middle of nowhere in a jeep. Asking someone out was all basically the same. But this was  _ Sephiroth _ \- the guy who Zack had finally coerced into a conversation, and Zack would be lying if he said he didn’t have a crush on the guy.

 

“That, yanno,” Zack cleared his throat and fiddled with the trip meter just for something to fiddle with. “If you asked me, I would say yes. That’s what I’m saying. I mean, I wouldn’t think my pretend-you would ever ask so I was more wondering what you preference for like dogs was. Which, spoiler, I think you prefer cats.”

 

Sephiroth laughed. “I’m actually quite fond of puppies.” 

 

“Awww,” Zack smiled over at Sephiroth. “That’s  _ adorable _ . I can just imagine you with a bunch of puppies all around you. They’d all be falling over and flopping around and stuff.” 

 

“I think I could only handle one at a time,” Sephiroth was smiling too. It was a mysterious one that Zack decided he liked a lot, too. “Speaking of, I’ll make sure to pull you aside after the mission.” 

 

Zack didn’t know what those things had to do with each other, but he just did a two fingered salute anyway. “Affirmative, General. Now? Which way are we going?” 

 

“Left.” Sephiroth gestured with his chin. The guy looked much more relaxed than the last time the jeep was moving. It was pretty great. 

 

It didn’t take long after that to arrive at their destination. The combat portion? Quick and dirty and done. Well, dirty only for Zack because Sephiroth remained perfectly pristine. They had to drive back after sending in a confirmation report. At least Sephiroth was chattier. 

 

And, true to his word, once they stepped foot back at HQ Sephiroth asked Zack out on a date. 


	27. Zack x Sephiroth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Original Post: au zack/sephiroth where mutual friends try to set em up but schedules never aligned/seph doesn't want to. they end up meeting on a fluke not set by friends 
> 
> Relationships: Zack x Sephiroth  
> Characters: Zack, Sephiroth, Genesis, Angeal  
> Other Tags: fluff, college au

“So you want to meet with him?” Angeal leaned over the work table like he was assessing Zack. 

“Yeah. Of course! Sign me up for the date train.” Zack thought it went without saying that he would make an extra effort to meet any of Angeal’s friends. Especially when they were attractive and Angeal was trying to set them up. “When’s he want me?” 

“Friday night’s are always good for him. A classic date night.” Angeal loved the classics.

“No can do.” Zack waved his hands in emphasis. “I swore of Friday night dates after freshman year. You were there, you remember. Besides we have a meet on Saturday I don’t want to be exhausted going into that. I don’t want coach yelling at me.” 

“Zack,” Angeal rubbed at his head. “I’m not expecting you two to hit it off and talk all night -”

“But what if we do! That’s a staple of college life! You can’t expect me to meet your friend and not talk about philosophy until three in the morning.” Zack gestured to his philosophy book. “How will we know we’re meant to be?!” 

“Fine. Give me a date that’s good for you.” 

Zack thought about his mental calendar, and then checked his actual calendar. “How about Wednesday? That’s a good blind date night.” 

“I’ll check in with him and get back to you.” 

[...]

“Change of plans.” Genesis slid into the booth across from Sephiroth. Sephiroth stopped shovelling food in his mouth for a split second to spare him a glance. “Zack can’t make it on Friday.” 

It took Sephiroth’s sleep deprived brain almost a minute to figure out what Genesis was talking about. The blind date with a close friend. Sephiroth didn’t really know anything about him other than he was attractive and kept good company with Angeal and a few other mutual friends. That was enough to peak Sephiroth’s interest. 

“That's fine.” Sephiroth could turn in early then. Or lock himself in the lab like he was prone to. “When are we meeting, then?”

“Next Wednesday.”

Sephiroth calculated the days and then held up a hand. “Impossible. I have a presentation in Thursday.” 

Genesis sighed. “This would be so much easier if both of you just had online calendars. Ugh!” Genesis flipped out his phone. “Give me some more options.”

“Lunch on Tuesday. Or dinner Thursday.” Sephiroth said with a shrug and shoveled food in his mouth. He couldn't eat in the lab so he had to pound it down here and he was  _ starving _ .

“Got it.” Genesis was busy texting Angeal. 

[...]

Angeal and Genesis were unrelenting. Two weeks had passed and still no date. But they kept on trying - they were both convinced that setting up Zack and Sephiroth was absolutely perfect for each other. 

When Zack was free Sephiroth was tutoring (“It's one of the highest paying jobs on campus. I can't smear my perfect record.”), when Sephiroth was amicable Zack had game night (“Lazard is coming! Do you know how rarely he comes?? I can't ditch). And then Sephiroth had lab (“This is literally why I’m coming to school”)), and Zack had a night class (“Visiting professor! I’m so pumped! Come with me!”), and then Sephiroth had an essay (“I’m not going to say I haven’t started yet, but I haven’t started yet”), and Zack had an overnight trip (“This has been on my calendar for months. Scuba diving trip!”)… 

“Your schedules are nightmares!!” Genesis threw the paper he'd been brainstorming on into the air. Hed’ spent the better part of the last thirty minutes trying to find a feasible time for these two to  _ finally _ meet. 

“Maybe it's fate.” Sephiroth said dully.

“No.” Genesis pointed his pen threateningly. “There is a solution and I will find it.”

Sephiroth chugged half his coffee before a thought occurred to him. “You know… I don't actually know anything about this Zack Fair. Is he even worth all the hassle?”

Genesis sat up straighter, clearly eager for distraction. 

“Well he’s cute.” 

Sephiroth yawned into his cup. “And? I know he’s attractive and relatively smart to keep up with you. But what else?”

“Do you even need anything else?” Genesis rolled his eyes. “You are so hard to please.” But he continued anyway, “We think you’d be great for each other, for one. And for two, he’s really excitable like a derpy puppy and -

Sephiroth groaned. “Ugh. I don’t babysit, Genesis.” He didn’t like how that sounded. 

“Excuse me? No one said anything about that! Where are you going? This is our weekly coffee break!!” 

“Forget it.” Sephiroth grabbed his bag and books. “Tell him it’s off. It’s not worth all the hassle. Bye.” 

Genesis let out a string of curses but didn’t try to stop him. 

On the other side of campus, Angeal looked down at his phone with an ‘oh.’ 

“What?” Zack was busy gathering all the things, papers already tumbling out of his hands with the uneven stack. “Is that Sephiroth with a schedule conflict?” 

“Well, it’s… it seems like Sephiroth doesn’t want to deal with this anymore.” 

Zack paused in his whirlwind of motion to think about that. 

“Makes sense. It has been kind of a pain. Hey!” Zack bonked Angeal’s elbow with a book. “Maybe we can try again next semester and our schedules will be more lined up.” 

Angeal rubbed at his face. He was busy telling himself that Sephiroth was just sleep deprived and taking out the rage he had from his lab partner onto all of this.He didn’t actually never want to meet Zack. Zack was probably right though: next semester would be a better opportunity. Maybe Sephiroth will have cooled off by then and had a chance to sleep for a week. 

“Oh! Hey! Do you need me to grab anything while I’m dropping these off? Aspirin maybe?” 

“No. I’m fine.” Angeal waved him off. “Just don’t lose them on the way. There will be hell to pay.” 

“Righto!” And then Zack was off. The stack wobbled as he went down the stairs but nothing was lost. He’d certainly come a long way from when he first started this gig. 

Zack didn’t see who was tromping along the cobblestones, but the moment Zack turned down the side of the building he almost collided with the mysterious stranger. Zack spun away and fell into a squat to keep from losing all of his papers. 

This position gave him ample time to ponder the tall guy he’d almost bumped into.

“Oh man! Wow, that was close. You okay over there?” 

Sephiroth, for his part, blinked dazedly. He had that certain form of dizziness that came from exhaustion. But he was also quite certain that he had met a guy with the cutest smile. It didn’t really explain why he was squatting, though. 

Zack squinted. “Should I take you to the medical building?” 

Sephiroth held up a hand. “No. I’m fine. Just… tired.” It was an easy statement to make in college: everyone was exhausted. 

“Yeesh.” Zack shifted the stack as he stood up. “You shouldn’t tromp so hard if you’re so sleepy. Maybe tromp back to your abode and take a nap? Oh! The study rooms in the library are usually empty this time of day if you really need some z’s.” 

Sephiroth smiled. “I have key card access to some important storage closets. They have couches.” 

“Oh, lucky. You headed there now? Get a quick nap in before class?” 

“Well… I wasn’t.” Sephiroth hadn’t really had a destination in mind when he stomped off. He just wanted to get some air and get away from Genesis. Why had he been angry at Genesis again?

Zack shifted the stack again - a paper flew out. Sephiroth caught it and put it back. 

“Thanks,” Zack smiled sheepishly. “I’d love to stay and chat but my buns will be roasted if I lose any of these materials. You know how it is.” 

“I do.” Sephiroth said. It looked like teaching materials, so this stranger was probably a TA. Or a tutor. 

“Oh!” Zack did a wiggle and then muttered a child friendly curse. “Well, uh, my hands are laden so I can’t shake your hand. But! I’m Zack.” 

Zack was a really common name. There were at least five Zack’s in Sephiroth’s dorm floor alone. Sephiroth pushed the niggling thought of Genesis and Angeal’s Zack away. 

Sephiroth, in the drunkeness of sleep exhaustion, put his hand on the pile of papers and pressed down before pulling away. That was like a handshake. “Nice to meet you, Zack. I’m Sephiroth.” 

Zack blinked, then frowned, and couldn’t help but ask. “Okay this is going to sound weird but do you know Angeal and Genesis?” 

Sephiroth stared at Zack. The thought came back immediately like a slap in the face. “Wait… are you… Zack  _ Fair _ ?”

They both stared at each other in stunned silence. Sephiroth taking in all of Zack: charming, polite, and extremely fit. Zack doing the same to Sephiroth: rivers of hair, cute demeanor, and kind of weird. 

“Well, uh,  _ huh _ .” Zack chuckled. “This is kinda awkward.” 

“I believe the term is ironic.” 

“Yeah! That one.” Zack laughed and turned. “Which direction you going because I need to ride this irony train as far as I can and get a good laugh.”

Sephiroth laughed, too.

“I’ll go wherever you’re going.” Sephiroth said. 

“Very well, kind sir,” Zack turned again. “To the admin building we go!” 

After Zack dropped off his papers, they decided to go for milkshakes at that one place off campus (neither of them had anywhere to be right that second). It was all pretty much history from there. 

Too bad they forgot to tell Angeal and Genesis about the dating thing. 


	28. Zack x Tseng

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/176782777025/au-zacktseng-one-of-them-speaks-a-foreign): au zack/tseng! one of them speaks a foreign language and tries to use it to keep conversations private. surprisingly the other knows it too
> 
> Relationships: Zack x Tseng  
> Characters: Zack, Tseng  
> Other Tags: fluff

Tseng’s parents came from a small town in northern Wutai. Like most of the small towns around the island, the dialect they spoke was far removed from standard Wutai. Even the people of his homeland stopped and scratched their heads when they heard it. The chance that any native Wutai speaker knew and understood it was already so low, that the risk of being understood in Shinra-run continents was completely acceptable. Tseng would know: he’d done the assessment. 

 

Thus, this became the language of choice Tseng used with his Turks out in public. Of course there were also call-signs, code words, hand signs, and a smattering of other languages they used. But Tseng liked to use the dialect of his homeland when he had the chance

 

“< _ All plate level units positioned, Commander. Awaiting order. _ >” Tseng said into the phone. The street was busy with Shinra personnel. Tseng observed them carefully from his cafe seat as he sipped some coffee. 

 

“Oh!” One Zack Fair popped up next to Tseng. “Hey there, Tseng!” 

 

Tseng spared him a glance. Zack Fair, First Class SOLDIER, currently off-duty, amicably broken up with Aeris Gainsborough, pure of heart and always eager to help. If something went wrong it wouldn’t hurt to have him close; at least, that was what Tseng told himself. Tseng flipped his phone closed and gave Zack his full attention 

 

“Zack. What a surprise.” Tseng gestured to the seat across from him. Zack looked around at the table before taking the chair. 

 

“Weird.” 

 

“What’s weird?” Tseng took another glance at sniper sightlines and the target’s last known location. No new mavement. 

 

“I could have sworn you were talking about ordering some food.” Zack looked around some more. “But you don’t even have a menu. Huh.” 

 

The cup Tseng had been raising never made it to his lips. 

 

“What did you say?” Tseng lowered the cup to the saucer. 

 

There was a surge of panic - a tightly controlled release of adrenaline that coldly told Tseng about how many potential security breaches he’d allowed simply because of a preference for what he has analyzed as a low-risk form of communication. 

 

“Oh. Didn’t you just order a plate of food?” Zack looked around for the server. “Or were you ordering for someone?”

 

“You eavesdropped on my phone call?” Tseng focused all his attention on Zack. Zack’s face was easy to read - he never held any secrets. The only true surprises that came with Zack were the people he surrounded himself with. Zack simply looked like normal with a tinge of embarrassment. 

 

“Yeah, well… sorry about that.” Zack laughed awkwardly. “It’s just… I haven’t heard anyone talk like that since I moved away from Gongaga.” 

 

Tseng thought of the Gongaga reactor - the reactor whose construction had been halted ever seen Reeve discovered a flaw in the design. It was true that the Gongagan’s spoke their own tongue, but it was  _ not _ this dialect of Wutai. Tseng would know.

 

“It’s not traditional Gonganain.” Tseng said simply. He glanced at his sightlines again: all clear. “How do you know it?” 

 

“Oh. My parents always spoke it.” Zack perked up and then slumped and a series of conflicting expressions cross his face. “It’s been a while since I talked to them.” 

 

Tseng would make a note to Zack Fair’s file. It was already common knowledge that he had a strained relationship with his family, but it had always been assumed that his parents were native Gongagans. No one had ever said anything to conflict that. 

 

“< _ My parents also speak it _ >.” Tseng said in careful Wutai. He didn’t need to, but he did. 

 

“What? Really!” Zack leaned in happy as ever. “What a small world!” 

 

Tseng found himself opening his mouth and providing even more information that Zack didn’t need to know: “< _ I haven’t spoken with them for a few years either _ .>” 

 

“Ouch.” Zack grimanced. “< _ Yeah… parents are… hard. _ >” 

 

There was something odd to Zack’s accent that Tseng couldn’t place. But he had switched languages just as Tseng had anticipated. The conversation was now officially private, just between them. 

 

After this mission (and talk) Tseng would have to re-evaluate his risk assessment and, in all likelihood, drop this language. But for now? It was good enough. 

 

“< _ What are you doing around here? _ >” Tseng took another sip of his tea. 

 

“< _ Oh! I’m doing tsibjrun. Well, I mean… I was and then I saw you and thought we could talk.>”  _ The more Zack talked, the more Tseng could figure out the missing pieces in his dialect. It seemed like he combined parts of Gongagan with Wutai; unless the Wutai dialect came from  _ near _ the village his parents was from, but not actually in the village proper. (Definitely a security concern). 

 

“< _ I see.> _ ” Tseng kept assessing Zack. Languages hadn’t been listed on Zack Fair’s personnel files, but Tseng was suddenly curious as to how many he knew. He must know passable Gongagan, he knew Shinra standard, and he knew a dialect of Wutai. If Tseng put Zack in some language courses he could probably pick things up easily and become a powerful negotiator with the locals everywhere he went. 

 

“ _ <Oh. Wait.  _ Did _ you order food? Because I’m starving. What’s good here? _ >” Zack started scoping out neighboring table’s plates. “< _ I’m about ready to kiss you clean. _ >” 

 

That made Zack pause and think about what he said. Tseng just hiked a brow as he let Zack decide what that meant. 

 

“Uhh… what I meant… was…” Zack cleared his throat and signaled for a waiter. “Wow, uh… you thirsty? I’m thirsty” 

 

So it meant exactly what Tseng thought it meant. “Was that a euphemism or a promise, Zack?”

 

A blush rose across Zack’s cheeks. Tseng knew from experience that this was an uncommon expression for the Zack Fair - he took mistakes and flirting with the grace of a Turk. 

 

“Both?” 

 

Tseng nodded to himself. Behind Zack, the target appeared in a distant balcony; they didn’t notice Tseng and disappeared into the nearby safehouse as predicted. “I expect you to keep that promise when you call me later.” 

 

“Uh! Wait!” Zack stood when Tseng did. “I don’t have your number. You always call me!” 

 

Tseng just smiled. “ _ <I will kiss you later. _ >”

 

Zack was left laugh blushing as Tseng went on to do his job.


	29. Aer x Tifa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/176993116875/au-aerti-where-tifa-meets-aer-when-she-first-comes): au aerti where tifa meets aer when she first comes to midgar
> 
> Relationships: Aer x Tifa  
> Characters: Aer, Tifa  
> Other Tags: Fix-it fic, fluff, angst

Once upon a time, Aer didn’t venture out of Sector 5 very often. Sector 5 was her home, her community. She looked out for them with plants and herbal remedies and they let her know when Shinra was sniffing around. There was never a reason to leave: she was comfortable and safe as she could be. 

 

Then she met Zack Fair and she started to wander. There was more to the world than she understood, there was more to see, and Aer wanted to  _ see  _ it. So she started exploring the slums. 

 

That was how on Aeris Gainsborough found herself in Sector 7. For all that the sector was similar, it was different. 

 

“Would you like a flower?” 

 

The girl in the torn cowgirl outfit stared, like she didn’t quite understand what was going on. It seemed like she’d had a hard day, hunched in an oversized coat and being in a daze. She didn’t look ill, just… struggling. 

 

“Here.” Aer held one out. 

 

The girl raised her head and Aer could finally see her face. Beneath the dirt and grime, she was young. Her pretty brown eyes were deep with pain. Aer had seen a lot of people with eyes like that. 

 

“Thanks.” The stranger took it delicately between her forefinger and thumb. It made her smile a bit; Aer considered it a job well done. 

 

Aer squatted beside her, in the little niche, and watched the bustle of the place. The only train station up to the plate was just over there - the same place Aer had met Elmyra. 

 

“Do you like flowers?” Aer asked. 

 

“Yeah… I used to grow them. I had a flower box outside my window…” There was a hollowness in her words. It made Aer estimate a million things that could have happened to the place she lived; Aer hoped it was just a runaway case who’d finally stopped running. Someone who just needed to vent. 

 

“I bet it was lovely.” Aer said gently. A part of her wanted to extend and offer: come and see my garden. But Aer knew better than to invite a stranger to her home without at least knowing their name. 

 

The train whistled in the distance. It made Aer jump a little bit; the memory of running from Shinra floated to the surface unbidden. How her mother had died, how her spirit lingered, how Elmyra took her in… 

 

“Relax.” The stranger said. “It’s just the lunch train.” 

 

“Right.” Aer smoothed her skirt, feeling a little embarassed. “Oh, I’m Aeris, by the way.” 

 

The girl looked up from the flower. “Tifa.” 

 

“That’s a pretty name! I’ve never heard it before.” Aer wondered how many other names she hadn’t heard before.

 

Tifa just stared at her like that was a weird thing to say. 

 

Aer jumped a little - she felt a wave of panic. It happened sometimes, the feeling of fear that wasn’t hers. Aer couldn’t pinpoint where it came from. But it felt like needles in her stomach. Sometimes she hated what she was. How could she help if she didn’t know where it was coming from?

 

“You all right?”

 

“Oh, I just um… do you ever feel like… something bad is happening?”

 

“All the time.” Tifa looked around.

 

People spilled onto the street from the train station at full speed. It was a  _ lot _ of people, more than Aer thought could fit on a train (she’d been to the train graveyard, she could estimate). And they kept coming. 

 

“Scatter!” Someone shouted over the crowd. “It’s a raid!” 

 

Both of them were slow getting to their feet when blue overtook the crowd. Military police, armed to the teeth, with masks that helped you forget there were people underneath it all. 

 

“Run!” Aer shouted to Tifa. But Tifa wasn’t moving, her stance was wide and low like she was about to catch a rampaging hell house with her bare fists. “Tifa!” 

 

Tifa was in front of her. When Tifa turned her face just so, the light washed over the silhouette of her features. They were warped into rage embodied. 

 

And then Tifa jumped into the fray. 

 

Dumbstruck. Aer watched Tifa move. A series of twists and turns, of kicks and punches and vicious elbows. She took down one… two… five… seven… 

 

One was coming up behind Tifa and she hadn’t noticed yet. Bruised and bleeding and still outnumbered, Tifa was destroying them. But ultimately she would fall. 

 

Aer had a terrible feeling in her gut, one that wasn’t anybody else’s but hers. She couldn’t stand here and watch anymore. 

 

Aer wished her flowers well before swinging her basked on top of the police’s head. Of course, the basket was whicker. Being whicker, it didn’t do much damage to the steel plated helmet; it exploded on impact instead, sending flowers in all directions. 

 

The military police turned on her very slowly. 

 

“Eep!” Aer tried to jump away but her arm was caught. 

 

“Let her go!” And then Tifa was there, clocking the man out with an easy fist. 

 

And without even a pause, Tifa grabbed Aer by the elbow and set off at a run. Aer tripped only once. 

 

The passed through three sectors before they collapsed into a wheezing pile of laughter. Aer felt giddier than she had in a long while. 

 

“I can’t - I can’t believe you - you attacked him with a - a flower basket!” Tifa wheezed and smacked Aer’s shoulder. It was an oddly gentle touch; now that Aer knew exactly what those hands could do she felt warm to receive such care. 

 

“I didn’t have anything else!” Aer said between giggles. “I couldn’t just let you get hurt!” 

 

Tifa’s face was straight for a whole second as she gestured to herself. The black eye, bruised lip, scratches through her clothes, and the swelling on her knuckles. Then it split into a grin again. “Better late than never.” 

 

They laughed like that for a long time. They pressed into each other as they did it. It wasn’t falling over each other, and it wasn’t huddling for warmth either. It was something else, something different: a different Aer liked. 

 

Tifa was sitting cross legged when they finally settled down. Aer could see the ratty shorts under her torn skirt from this angle. 

 

“You need a proper weapon.” Tifa said with a nod to herself. 

 

“Can’t I just use my fists like you?” Aer held hers up. It wasn’t like she hadn’t punched someone before: she  _ did _ live in Midgar. 

 

“No,” Tifa placed her hands on top of Aer’s fists. They were warm and calloused and flaked with dirt and dried blood. “It… it doesn’t suit you.” 

 

Aer huffed. She wanted Tifa’s hands to guide her into stances, to adjust her weight. She’d never been interested in hand to hand combat before. “How would you know?” 

 

“I’ve tried to get a lot of people into martial arts before.” Tifa shrugged. “I’ve realized it’s not everyone’s thing.” 

 

“Oh? Like who?” Aer wasn’t jealous, simply curious. That was all. 

 

“Like -” Tifa’s breath hitched and her smile faltered. “... just… some people back... home…” 

 

Aer could read between the lines. There was so much hurt there. It was more than just a runaway case for Tifa. It was a hurt as fresh as the blood on her face. It wouldn’t do well to prod at it so fresh. 

 

But you could soothe it. 

 

“Would you like to come to my house?” Aer said. 

 

Tifa blinked out of her daze. It was obvious she wasn’t quite sure how Aer made this decision. “Pardon?” 

 

“My house! I have lots of flowers. We even have an extra room.” 

 

Tifa’s jaw worked up and down. “What?” 

 

“It’s the least I can do for you saving me.” Aer said matter of factly as she stood. 

 

“But you were the one who tried to save me.” Tifa pointed out, not making any moves to stand. 

 

“Details details.” Aer offered her hand. “Come on.”

 

Tifa looked at it for a moment, and then looked at Aer for a moment longer. Truth be told, Aer had no idea how she looked in that moment: white dressed covered in dirt and flower petals stuck to her arms and a smile on her face. She took Tifa’s breath away. 

 

“Okay.” Tifa took the offered hand. 

 

Both of them had the sense  that it was the start of something. They weren’t sure what kind of something, but it was something. 

 

They had no idea that Tifa would become a bruiser enough to earn the respect of the Turks as Aer’s unofficial bodyguard. They had no idea how much they had in common even for how different they were. They had no idea that their first kiss would be right before that missile fell into the church (definitely fireworks to remember). They had no idea that they would end up rescuing both of their ex’s from the brink of death on a Turk tip. 

 

And they had no idea that it would lead to them saving the world. 


	30. Zack x Sephiroth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/177120465170/au-zackseph-with-ta-keeps-having-chance-meetings): au zack/seph with ta keeps having chance meetings with an ex-student
> 
> Relationships: Zack x Sephiroth  
> Characters: Zack, Sephiroth, Genesis, Angeal  
> Tags: modern au, college au, fluff, awkwardness

Zack Fair was one hot TA and he knew it. He made sure to wear tight shirts and flex in all the right places because he worked hard for this body (also he hadn’t gone shopping in awhile). But what Zack really worked hard for was this class and his teaching degree - but that really went without saying. 

 

Zack had a strict no kissy kissy with students policy. Once upon a time he had been a student doing the dirty with his teacher and, well… they hadn’t gotten caught ever but Zack really didn’t want to deal with all of that stress. (A stress which hadn’t really existed until he became a TA Angeal explained in vivid detail how his whole life could be destroyed because of a hot freshman with a cute smile. Zack was guilted into obedience really). 

 

“Hello, Mr. Fair.” One of his more memorable students had said to him one day when he was walking between buildings. It wasn’t unusual to get a greeting or two, a headnod or three, but it was the ‘Mister’ that made him stop for a second. 

 

“Why hello to you too!” Zack was pretty sure his name was Phiro. No Seph. No Steven. No… it really didn’t help when he assigned nicknames to people - especially the really iconic looking people. Yanno with the blonde hair for days, the severe face that lit up when he solved a hard problem, a low voice that rumbled in your chest when you stood too close, and eyes that just looked into your soul - 

 

Zack tripped over a crack and windmilled his arms until he righted himself. 

 

Phiro-Steven-Seph quirked a worried brow at him. 

 

But Zack was smooth  _ and _ hot. He knew how to toot his own horn. So he threw out a wink and a salute: “Enjoy the weather!” 

 

Phiro-Steven-Seph just shook his head and waved. 

 

Just like that, the really hot kid was out of his mind again. Because, Zack  _ really _ made it a point to not boink students literally or imaginitavely. And even  _ if _ they made it into his dreams he made it extra credit to forget them. And everyone knew that Zack Fair was a slut for extra credit.

 

Zack’s life went back to the crazy hectic normal that it was. With his own classload, TA’ing gig, and dealing with regular life maintenance. 

 

Phiro-Steven-Seph wasn’t even a blip in his mind until they ran right into each other in the campus cafeteria. It was like comic slam - trays collided, one of the magical cakes that never gets restocked smashed on Zack’s face, water went all over blondie-mc-hot-face, and a salad and french fries and Zack could identify what else just went everywhere. 

 

“Omygosh, are you okay?!” Zack looked the guy over once in concern, trying not to think of how attractively ridiculous he was covered in food. 

 

“I’m fine.” Phiro-Steven-Seph was looking at the cake - the magical,high quality cake that was never ever in stock. It was currently smashed on Zack’s tray and covered in a bunch of kale. 

 

“That’s a relief.” Zack whooshed out a breath. “Sorry about that.” 

 

And he squatted down to try and contain the worst of the mess before some student faculty were forced to clean it up. But Zack could see them moving already with a mop and a bucket. Zack felt for them so much. 

 

“No, I should apologize.” Blondie squatted down to help, too. “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going, Mr. Fair.” There was a breathiness in his voice that made Zack concerned. Then again, Zack could chalk it up to disappointment. Those cakes were fucking  _ amazing _ . 

 

“Nah. It happens.” 

 

And then the staff was shooing them away from the spill and taking the trays from them to dispose of. At least they didn’t have to pay. Phiro-Steven-Seph watched them go with a pout. 

 

“Hey.” Zack patted the guys shoulder before he remembered himself. For one, this guy was a student. And for two, his hands were really gross right now. A lot of people didn’t like that sort of thing. “Tell you what. I owe you a piece of cake. ”

 

That earned a laugh. “No, no, no. I’ll buy you lunch instead. It’s the least I can do.” 

 

Zack thought about it for a minute. “We’ll buy each other lunch, then. That’ll set us square.” 

 

“No, I…” Phiro-Steven-Seph thought for a second. “I’ll make it up to you. Listen, why don’t I buy your lunch today and then you can buy me lunch another day?”

 

Zack frowned at that. In part because it sounded almost like a date, but mostly because it sounded unfair. And everybody knew Zack was a slut for fairness. 

 

Wait, scratch that -  _ justice _ . 

 

“Why not today? Can’t replace the cake?” 

 

“No, I don’t have enough time to eat and shower.” Phiro-Steven-Seph gestured at himself: at the ketchup in his hair and the salad dressing on his shirt not to mention all those oil stains yeesh. 

 

“Well if you don’t have enough time to do both, you don’t have enough time for me to load up on food again. I can see the line for fries from here.” Zack patted him again - dumbly like a dumb idiot who forgot things. “Don’t sweat it. We’ll pay each other back later.” 

 

There was a smile: warm and pleasant and Zack really liked to look at it. 

 

“Okay then. Another time.” 

 

And Phiro-Steven-Seph was walking out of the cafeteria station. Zack shook his head and got back in line. What a pure hearted guy; he definitely deserved a piece of cake the next time Zack saw him. Yanno, if Zack managed to see him and the cake at the same time. 

 

Zack wondered idly where the guy was going. A class? A job? A club? Volunteering? A meeting with his advisor or teacher? There were so many possibilities. Zack had no idea what the guy’s major was, only that he had been taking this class to fill out his core degree requirements. 

 

Wait, had? Wasn’t he currently in one of Zack’s classes? Zack thought about it. Then he thought about today, and yesterday, and the week before. Phiro-Steven-Seph hadn’t been in the sea of faces. Huh. 

 

Zack was thinking about this as he went to the check-out line. The clerk behind the counter told him that his meal was already paid for. Zack, confused, simply asked who. 

 

And the response was: “Why, that boy you ran into. Sephiroth.” 

 

Zack was struck by a few things. First: that he now owed the guy a whole cake not just a slice because wow that was so nice (and so sneakily nice too what a good samaritin, man after Zack’s own heart). And second: that  _ Sephiroth _ was definitely 100% phiro-Steven-Seph’s name wasn’t it? 

 

Zack vividly recalled a fellow student calling him ‘Steven’ and the glare they got back was so hard Zack had to intervene. And then he found out that ‘Seph’ wasn’t a good one either because Sephiroth didn’t like nicknames (even though no one could pronounce his name at first and it was a mouthful on paper). And then it just became ‘Phiro’ in Zack’s head because it sounded like a cat’s name and Sephiroth was kind of like a cat and then if he ever ended up talking about the hot thing in his class no one would expect that Phiro meant Sephiroth.

 

Zack thanked the nice clerk, stuffed a bill in the tip jar, and continued on auto-pilot until the food was eaten. He went back to his office (shared with three other TA’s and the department’s printer) and started looking through his student attendance lists for the past few semesters. 

 

Sure enough, Sephiroth wasn’t a current student. He’d been a run and done last semester.

 

Zack looked down at the lists and thought. 

 

Zack had absolutely no idea about Sephiroth’s life outside of the class he had been TA for. And, like, sure there was a lot to glean about someone in that sort of environment: how they struggled, how they interacted with people, the way they focused, the way they took notes, how often they got bored… but he didn’t really know anything else about the guy. 

 

Like, would Phiro be cool with a hot TA trying to hang out with him? 

 

Well. Zack shrugged. He clearly liked cake, so that was a good starting point. 

 

The next few times Zack ran into Sephiroth were noticeably cake-less, and too short on time to chat. Like the time Zack had been assigned some grunt work assignment printing that hadn’t cooperated and he’d forgotten that the class wasn’t in the usual building, so he was booking it across campus with a box of papers in his arms; Zack managed a nod in Sephiroth’s direction and Sephiroth had his hand raised awkwardly to wave. There was also the time there was a sudden, icy downpour rain and Sephiroth was running in the opposite direction of Zack to find cover; they bumped into each other, didn’t fall, shared a laugh and waved before they continued on. 

 

It was a Friday night the next time they met. 

 

Zack, like a true nerd, was grabbing some materials from the library before it closed. Nothing super urgent, not even for school. Just a book Angeal had recommended offhandedly like he never expected Zack to read it - specifically in that offhanded, woe-is-me way that made Zack determined to read it and prove him wrong. 

 

So there he was, with an armload of books balancing on a stepstool, when the hush of the library vanished. 

 

“Oh.” Someone said. “Hello, there.” 

 

Zack craned his neck and saw a head full of blonde silky locks that he definitely hadn’t been thinking about off and on for the past three weeks. “Oh, hey yourself.” 

 

Sephiroth looked him up and down. “Are you checking all of those out?” 

 

“Uh.” Zack looked down at his pile. “Not all of them, just, uh, just one. I was told a topic and Smith. But all of these are written by a Smith so…” Zack shrugged. 

 

“Let me help you.” Sephiroth held out his hands and Zack hesitated for just a second before offloading. He really didn’t want to put them all back on the top shelf and the nearest library cart was like three stacks away. 

 

“Thanks.” Zack worked his way off the ladder. “Did you, uh, need any of these?” 

 

Sephiroth looked at the stack and nodded. “Yes. The most cited one.” 

 

“Which is…?” Zack wasn’t that familiar with this branch of acadamia, but he assumed that he should be reading that one. 

 

Sephiroth put a book in Zack’s hands, and then another, and eventually the pile. “The one on the bottom.” Sephiroth said it like it wasn’t obvious. 

 

“Of course it was.” Zack squinted at the title and made a mental note of it. 

 

Sephiroth frowned suddenly, like he had just remembered something. “How urgently do you need this?” 

 

“You would think I needed it like right now, coming in on a Friday and all. But actually not really.” Zack shrugged under the weight of the books. “So you take it.” 

 

“Are you certain?” Sephiroth looked everything but. Zack was well versed in the nuances of this look; you learned a  _ lot _ about a person when you teach them, 

 

“Totally. Oh!” Zack remembered the thing he had wanted to ask his once-upon-a-student, the guy who deserved more than getting the book he needed for something or other. “Are you busy after this?” 

 

Sephiroth looked down at the book in his hand and then back at Zack like the answer should be obvious. 

 

But Zack didn’t really want to believe a guy would be spending Friday night doing more studying. 

 

“Because I owe you some cake.” 

 

“Oh. Uh, you don't really.” Sephiroth waved the book. If Zack didn't know any better he'd say that the guy was embarrassed. “I have plans tonight…” 

 

“Ah well… wait!” Zack readjusted the books and reached into his pocket. And out he pulled: “Tada! Here's my number. You can text me when your free or email me whatever is easier.” 

 

Sephiroth took the business card like it was going to bite him. 

 

“Thank you.” Phiro nodded stiffly. Turning on his heel he just walked away. 

 

“What a weird guy,” Zack said to himself, not for the first time. But, for the first official time Zack could tell himself just how attractive that ass was. Since, yanno, Sephiroth wasn’t technically his student. And damn what kind of guy just casually wore skin tight leather to the library?

 

Zack shrugged it off and dropped the books off at a cart, picked  and headed off towards dinner. 

 

Sephiroth didn’t call Zack. Or text him. Or even email him - the safest and most impersonal of the three options! 

 

To be fair, Sephiroth didn’t seem like the guy who would make good on an offer like that. Plus, yanno, leather pants aside it had sort of seemed like Zack was coming on to him out of nowhere. 

 

Zack didn’t know if there was like… a time limit he needed to abide by before he started going after former students - since it had never come up before. So he was just gunning for Sephiroth to be a friend. He seemed like a cool guy who probably knew lots of stuff Zack didn’t: it was always good to have more of those kinds of people in your life. 

 

Zack had absolutely no idea that Sephiroth had been in a week-long freak out over the cute TA who had been the only reason he hadn’t flunked that stupid class basically asking him out. Genesis had laughed at him when he came back to their shared apartment, absolutely frantic at turning down a date with the guy he’d been crushing on for the whole last semester. 

 

Zack was drinking coffee and looking over some papers the next time Sephiroth saw him. He was in one of the cafes just off campus, one of the few that wasn’t staffed and managed by students. 

 

Zack had to double take when Sephiroth sat across from him. 

 

“Phir-I mean, Sephiroth!” Zack made some room on the table so his papers weren’t overtaking everything. “What a surprise. We keep just bumping into each other.” 

 

Zack had no idea that Sephiroth had been working up the courage to approach Zack since midterms last semester. And he hadn’t  _ quite _ been stalking him, but he happened to know someone who was in his class who had a good sense of his schedule. So if Sephiroth bumped into him here or there, then all the better. 

 

Unfortunately knowing where he would be hadn’t really  _ helped _ Sephiroth actually interact with him. Just stand there awkwardly while they bumped into each other, making up weird excuses to check out a book he’d read five times already, and desperately thinking about cake so his brain wouldn’t short circuit from embarrassment. 

 

“Yes.” Sephiroth felt like he should elaborate, but didn’t know what to say. Zack was just so pleasant to look at, so entertaining to listen to, and without any questions about class to ask Sephiroth just didn’t have any words left. 

 

“Oh! Hey. They don’t have cake here, but I think you could use a pastry.” Zack winked. He did that a million times in class; just like always it made Sephiroth’s stomach flip. 

 

“I’m fine.” Food wouldn’t help him. Sephiroth didn’t need any other props: they were nothing but in his way. Distracting him from his primary objective. 

 

“How about some tea then? You look a little stressed.” Zack was looking Sephiroth’s face all over, analyzing and digging deep. God, Zack had always known when Sephiroth needed help even before he raised a hand. 

 

“No, I…” Sephiroth looked around desperately before forcing his gaze back on Zack. “I was… I was wondering… if you…” 

 

Zack didn’t say anything, just patiently waited and let Sephiroth speak. 

 

Sephiroth took a deep breath. “Date.” There, he said the word. 

 

Zack pieced that together in his head. “Wait… are you… asking me out?” 

 

Sephiroth nodded, grateful he didn’t have to explain anymore. 

 

“So you and me… dating… hmmm…” Zack looked up at the ceiling, and then down at the table, and otherwise made a big show of thinking. Sephiroth sat on the edge of his seat. “I dunno. I don’t really date students.” 

 

“But I’ll never be taking one of your classes again. I just took it for the degree core requirement.” Sephiroth was doing his best not to act manic but god he really wanted to hang out with Zack more. 

 

“Hmmmmm.” Zack looked at him again. There was something deep in that gaze that made Sephiroth shiver. Was it sexual, was it romantic? Sephiroth couldn’t pinpoint. Then Zack smiled, wide and toothy. “Let’s do it.” 

 

“Really?” 

 

“Yeah! And we’ll start,” Zack got up out of his chair. “By getting some hand crafted pastries.” 

 

Sephiroth smiled. 

 

By no means was their relationship normal. Two men in academia - one getting his teaching degree and the other applying for PhD programs. They were busy and life was hectic, but they were comfortable with each other. Thier grand and romantic plans ended up being going out for coffee, or the library, or snuggling on the couch reading academic papers. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was enough. 

 

(even if Angeal always gave Zack a serious side eye whenever Sephiroth was brought up). 


	31. Zack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/177157855205/a-dbh-au-soldier-as-androids-zack-is-deviant): a dbh au!! soldier as androids. zack is deviant hunter android??? 
> 
> Relationships: Sephiroth & Cloud, Zack & Angeal  
> Characters: Zack, Sephiroth  
> Tags: Major Character Death, angst, gun tw

Humanity was a complicated algorithm. 

 

“Sephiroth.” Zack shouted into the wind. “I don’t mean you any harm.” 

 

Humanity hands had shaped them. Human minds had given weights to the algorithms that dictated their thoughts. Human speech gave them orders to live by. 

 

Sephiroth - the common name for model S-010 - stood at the edge of the helipad. The form in his arms was limp and dangling, but still giving off a heat signature. The barrel of a gun was pressed to the human’s temple. 

 

Humans were complicated. Their decisions were contradictory, their emotions illogical, and their passion without fathom. Zack didn’t understand humans. 

 

“I was sent by Shinra Life Manufacturing.” Even from this distance, Zack could feel the static in his processing unit. It was like an infection clouding his judgement. 

 

Sometimes androids who didn’t understand humans got confused. Buggy, corrupted, abnormal: a deviance. Those that deviated from standard operation were shut down and inspected piece by piece. 

 

All of them knew that would happen. All of them knew the risk. 

 

“Stay back!” Sephiroth pointed the gun at Zack, hostage lolling in his arms. 

 

Sephiroth had once been an android deployed for assistance in active combat zones and then transitioned to home security. This model, like all active ones, had been refurbished so all default weaponry had been removed, as had its combat functionality.

 

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Zack kept closing the distance. “I know you’re confused right now.” 

 

Functionality that had been deleted was never actually deleted. It didn’t matter if a magnet was pressed to the processing unit, if the code was purged completely. That thing that humans didn’t want them to have: it never quite went away. Zack would know. 

 

A gunshot, bullet embedded into the concrete where Zack would have stepped.

 

The Z-series hadn’t been intended to hunt down deviants. Derived from the A-series in stature and appearance and docility, the ones like Zack had been made to teach and nurture humans young and old. 

 

“Stay back!!” Sephiroth shouted it. His gun never wavered, unlike other deviants who had been in his position. 

 

Zack remembered the first time he had disabled a deviant: the Angeal series he had worked closely with. If they had been human, Zack would have called them friends, would have called Angeal a mentor. The first Angeal, like all the rest, had always had shaky aim. 

 

Zack stayed where he was. “Please, put Cloud down. We’re not going to hurt him.” 

 

Shortly after the first incident all Z-series models were refurbished as deviant negotiators. Their highly empathetic nature helped them to calm the humans involved, to collaborate with local authorities, and communicate with the deviant. And, if all else failed, they were completely disposable. Unlike hostages: unlike Cloud Strife. 

 

“You’re going to take him away!” Sephiroth said it with a burst of static in Zack’s brain. “He needs me! You can’t take him away!” 

 

Cloud Strife was an android engineer who worked in refurbishing older models and extending their life outside of Shinra’s purview. Once self described as a cyborg himself, the military veteran had a habit of commandeering dangerous models and making them safe for public consumption. Shinra allowed it so they could copy his designs without providing him compensation. 

 

“Cloud is sick.” Zack said gently. “He needs help. You’re only hurting him by keeping him -” 

 

A few weeks ago a nano-chip had malfunctioned, bringing the once brilliant Cloud Strife into a vegetative state. 

 

“NO! Cloud needs me! No one else but me!” Sephiroth gripped the body so strongly that Zack could see blood. “Those - those doctors don’t know what he needs! We - we talk every day. I know what he needs. They don’t! They’re going to kill him!” 

 

Sephiroth had been working with doctors amicably until a few days ago. They had started a new treatment and Sephiroth was adamantly against it. Tensions came to a head just a few hours ago. 

 

“You’re going to kill him if you do this.” Zack gestured to the body. Zack’s programmed instincts wanted to take him and wrap him in blankets, to sing him stories to calm him in his sleep, to tend him until all was better. But they were overridden with a new protocol. “You’re going to hurt his heart.” 

 

Those doctors hadn’t been the first death caused by a deviant; they hadn’t even been the first civilian death caused by a deviant. But they were why Zack was here. 

 

“You don’t  _ understand _ .” Sephiroth’s grip shook. Zack took a step forward. “They were going to poison him. He knew - he could feel it. He - he told me to stop them. But they wouldn’t listen. They didn’t even  _ think _ !” Sephiroth pressed his head against Cloud’s. It was an intimate gesture, full of emotions. Zack stopped in his tracks unable to move forward: he could feel the ball of static between them. 

 

Zack had done the very same thing once to Angeal. The humans didn’t know that they did it: sharing memories, sharing conclusions, sharing… feelings. 

 

“Then, think for yourself, Sephiroth. Think about what will happen after this? What will happen to you and Cloud? Really think.” Zack should have moved forward. It was the perfect opportunity, an opening. 

 

Maybe that was were the deviancy came in. They spread it like an infection: the desire to be close, to connect, to exist. 

 

“I don’t care if I die.” Sephiroth looked at Zack now. His eyes, which had been flashing a burning green, were now a docile blue. “I just want them to save, Cloud. And if they would rather burn him with me, then we will burn here.” 

 

Zack had already sent the request to HQ and already recieved a response. All before he stepped on the roof. 

 

Zack could lie, could say that they were going to try something else to save Cloud. Zack could lie, and say that they would forgive Sephiroth and let him watch over Cloud after it all. But, Zack couldn’t. It was part of his core programming that the humans thought they got rid of. 

 

“I’m sorry.” Zack said it to himself, to the device that the humans would watch and analyze and critique him with, and he said it to both of them. 

 

Zack had been designed with an ambiguous thing called hope, and an even vaguer thing to humans called fairness. His base program forbade him from telling a lie, forbade him from giving up, and forbade him from abandoning even an android. 

 

Sephiroth laughed at that, unhinged as a human. “Get me someone who can save him or I’ll kill him myself.” 

 

The snipers were finally in position on the other building, time for negotiation was running out. 

 

“I know someone, a doctor. Her name is Aeris Gainsborough. She’s coming right now.” Zack spread his arms. 

 

Zack had met a lot of people in his time as a caregiver, and then as a deviant hunter. Humans and androids who were programmed by the same thing he was. A desire to help. 

 

“I…” Sephiroth looked at the limp body in his arms and then at Zack. “Is she really coming?” 

 

Perhaps all of them were deviants in this society for feeling a thing called empathy. 

 

“Yes. I promise you.” Zack took another step forward. “Now please. Put Cloud down.”

 

Both of them knew Sephiroth as he was this moment, wouldn’t survive. Oh there would be phantom memories, caches of the time he was. But the existence that he was this moment? It would disappear the moment he lowered Cloud to the ground, and the sniper let fly his bullet. 

 

Sephiroth lowered himself to the ground, a complicated emotion on his face. “Thank you.” Cloud was re-arranged in his arms: it looked like a comfortable embrace. 

 

Zack knew better than to try and stop him: he’d learned that not everyone could be saved. Not when the complex machinations of society decided who would live and who would die. 

 

Zack shouldn’t have looked away, had no reason to look away. But he didn’t want to record it. They could verify the records themselves.

 

One gunshot. No more static. 

 

Aeris Gainsborough arrived and was being led inside by the team. 

 

Carefully Zack took Cloud out of Sephiroth’s arms. And if he removed the back-up chip into Cloud’s clothes and out of his hand and erased his memory of ever doing that, well then… so much the better. 


	32. Tseng x Sephiroth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Original Post](http://fflove190.tumblr.com/post/177577759680/au-tsengseph-where-they-match-on-a-dating-site): au tseng/seph where they match on a dating site but are coworkers and awkward
> 
> Characters: Tseng, Sephiroth  
> Pairings: Tseng x Sephiroth  
> Tags: modern au, fluff, awkwardness

They had been sitting in the coffee shop, opposite of each other, for five solid minutes of silence. The awkwardness was as thick as an iceberg. The only ice breaking happening was the gradual melting in Sephiroth’s iced coffee. 

 

“So, nice weather.” Sephiroth tried. The streets lit up with a lightning flash that distracted them both. 

 

Tseng nodded. “It’s relieving to have rain. The season’s been dry.” 

 

And then there was nothing else to be said. They fell back into silence.

 

The small talk was no better than what they had at work. The standard desert talk: water, fires, weather. They’d talked about all the topics now, too. Honestly, what else could they talk about in a situation like this? 

 

Tseng knew that Sephiroth could attempt polite awkwardness for hours, pulling small talk topis up like a dentist pulling out roots in a root canal. It wasn’t exactly pleasant to sit through, but he could tolerate it if he had do. But this wasn’t a work event. There was no reason to suffer. 

 

“Sephiroth.” Tseng said into his tea. “I apologize.” 

 

“Pardon?” Sephiroth looked as alert as a prey animal. 

 

“I should have recognized you from your profile picture.” True, it wasn’t the one Sephiroth used at work but it still looked like him. At least, it had his iconic blond hair and tall frame. Tseng should have known better than to ignore his gut on that. 

 

Sephiroth fiddled with his drink. Tseng watched those long fingers curl against the glass and come away wet, only to press in again. It was entrancing. 

 

“I didn’t exactly post my face,” Sephiroth said. “And the image was small.” 

 

“Regardless.” Tseng put his tea down and let the warmth seep between his fingers. When he looked up, he caught Sephiroth’s eye. “We are in a bit of an awkward position now.” 

 

“Is it…” Sephiroth looked around the cafe for the words. Sephiroth wasn’t in sales or customer service: he lacked diplomatic grace in conversation. But he made up for it in his determination to get a point across. “Is it awkward because we want to date?”

 

That was part of the problem, wasn’t it? 

 

They hadn’t just matched on the website, they had really connected. It wasn’t soul searchingly deep, but Tseng had been intrigued by the brilliant person on the other side of the screen. In their exchanges, Tseng had glimpsed someone he could imagine spending his time on: to listen to, to debate with. 

 

“Or is it awkward because… we don’t.” Sephiroth finally focused on Tseng again. The way Sephiroth looked at him almost made Tseng believe he had learned how to read a face. Almost. The kicked cat expression still trumped everything else. 

 

Tseng looked into Sephiroth’s eyes and thought about it. 

 

“We’re coworkers.” Tseng stated simply. That in itself should have been enough of a deterrent. 

 

“Yes.” Sephiroth let the word drop like it didn’t need to be said. Just a few hours ago they had been in a meeting room: a long and frustrating meeting about deliverables, project deadlines, and just whose team would be handling what. Sephiroth frowned and took another drink of coffee.

 

“We work closely with each other.” Tseng looked for any other reaction. “If we were to pursue this, our working relationship will be impacted.” That Tseng enjoyed working with Sephiroth, he felt went without saying. Sephiroth always delivered, and when he raised had concerns they were valid, and their conversations were always pleasant. 

 

Dating a coworker always caused problems. Drama where there didn't need to be any, petty rivalries that distracted from work. Tseng hadn't made the mistake himself, but he had seen others bumble into it. 

 

“This is true. But Shinra…” Sephiroth thought about phrasing for a second. “Shinra is a global entity. I know more people in committed relationships with Shinra coworkers than from anywhere else. Why… is there a reason we can't try? Aren't we compatible according to the algorithm that matched us up?” 

 

Tseng didn't know how else to explain. 

 

“I enjoy working with you.” Tseng finally said. 

 

“I like working with you as well.” When Sephiroth looked up the uncertainty was gone from his eyes. “I also liked chatting with you when we set this meeting up. If we work well together, we might also date well.” 

 

“Potentially.” Tseng really disliked mixing his workplace and personal affairs. 

 

“Tseng,” Sephiroth fiddled with his drink. “I… wanted to meet the man who liked poetry and going to museums. I don’t think… it’s not...  just because we’re coworkers doesn’t mean I can’t meet him, can I?”

 

Tseng looked at Sephiroth and remembered. The man Tseng had wanted to meet was the one who had never gone hiking but always wanted to, who enjoyed discovering new tea blends, the one who was unintentionally familiar with the play-book-and-movie Loveless to the point of being able to recite each version word for word. That person had sounded interesting, whose story Tseng wanted to uncover. 

 

Just because that person was Sephiroth, did it mean that Tseng  _ had _ to stop wanting to meet him? 

 

Tseng thought, too, about how close he was to his own team. Some might say he was uncomfortably close. They had events outside of work, at each others apartments, at least once a week. Sometimes watching movies, sometimes playing games, and sometimes just talking about nothing. True, it had been a slow and insidious creep into his personal life. But they were as much family as they were coworkers.

 

It was more than a little hypocritical to say that attempting to date Sephiroth was somehow more significant than that. 

 

Sephiroth had been silent this whole time. But Sephiroth’s eyes had been flicking across Tseng’s face like emotions had poured from it.

 

The tea was warm in his hands; there was a draft as patrons left the cafe; the steamer hissed as the baristas worked. Tseng was at a cafe, on a date with a man who was attractive, patient, and just a little odd.

 

“No.” Tseng took another sip of his tea. “I don’t see why you can’t meet him.” 

 

Sephiroth smiled. It was different than the ones he had at work; it was more endearing than any Tseng had seen before. 

 

“Well then.” Sephiroth reached a hand over the table. “My name is Sephiroth.” 

 

Tseng laughed then. His hand met Sephiroth’s sweaty one. “I’m Tseng. A pleasure to meet you off the clock.” 

 

“And in such lovely rain.” Sephiroth’s smile was infectious. The time sped away from them: they kept chatting even as they went back to work. 

 

A week later, they filled out a relationship disclosure form.


End file.
